Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig will highlight the importance of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to Iowa agriculture during a visit to Landus Cooperative in Jefferson Wednesday, May 23, at 2 pm.
Naig will meet with Landus Cooperative managers and tour the facility. The visit was scheduled to coincide with loading a train bound for Mexico with Iowa corn. According to Landus Cooperative director of communications Alicia Heun, the train will not be there.
NAFTA has been in force since 1994. It set a schedule for progressively eliminating tariffs charged to and by Mexico and Canada. By 2008, only a limited number of agricultural products traded with Canada were subject to tariffs, duties, or quantity restrictions.
NAFTA also includes rules of origin, customs procedures, agriculture and sanitary measures, government procurement, investment, trade in services, protection of intellectual property rights, and procedures for settling disputes.
A year ago, Congress was informed that President Trump intended to begin negotiations with Canada and Mexico regarding NAFTA. The president argues that NAFTA gives Mexico advantages, allowing Mexico to take jobs and billions of dollars in commerce away from the U.S.
Naig is running in the Republican primary against four other candidates for the position to which he was appointed when Jim Northey was assigned to a post in the federal Department of Agriculture.
