Top business, farm groups launch new coalition on trade

Powerful U.S. businesses, farmers and manufacturers are joining forces as concerns ramp up about the direction of the Trump administration’s trade agenda.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce are launching a new coalition — Trade For America (TFA) — that will highlight the overall benefits for the nation of global trade

{mosads}”There’s a recognition that the economy is growing, jobs are being created and the stock markets are at record highs but there’s enormous anxiety, particularly outside of Washington, regarding trade,” said Bill Lane, executive director of TFA.

“While all of these groups have their own independent trade education efforts that they’ve been pursuing for an extended period of time we felt it was just absolutely critical that we amplify our voice,” Lane said.

The group aims to build support for updating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) that they argue will promote economic and jobs growth.

The coalition’s plan is to look outside Washington to businesses, farmers and manufacturers on the ground to gauge where they need the Trump administration to steer trade policy, Lane said.

“We’re all enthusiastic about making NAFTA and KORUS better and we realize there’s a significant downside if something happens to NAFTA and KORUS,” Lane said.

“We need a more open discussion on trade, and more than anything, a more civil discussion on trade so that folks can make informed decisions,” he said. “There’s just way too much rhetoric going on.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the three-nation North American agreement though he has recently taken a softer approach on the 25-year-old pact while calling it a bad deal for the United States. 

Trade negotiators with the United States, Canada and Mexico are in Montreal this week for the sixth round of NAFTA talks as they try to hammer out an updated deal.

“We’ve said it before, and it’s worth saying again: If the U.S. isn’t leading on trade, we’re falling behind,” said Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“Now that America’s economy is back on the upswing, we should recommit to the policies that got us here, including smart trade policy,” Donohue said. “That means strengthening our trading partnerships — not weakening them — so we keep pace in the global competition to sell to the 95 percent of the world’s population that lives outside the U.S.”

The new trade group will launch the campaign Wednesday in Dallas. Texas has reaped the benefits from NAFTA and has much at stake in the outcome of the negotiations. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) is slated to make remarks at the Dallas event.

Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico have quadrupled under NAFTA. 

“The current negotiations should build on that success,” Duvall said.

“The Farm Bureau is pleased to work with TFA as well as Farmers for Free Trade and other collaborative efforts to engage farmers and leaders at the local, state and national levels and deliver that message to Congress and the president,” he said.

A new economic analysis, released by the Business Roundtable on Tuesday, shows leaving NAFTA would cause net job losses of 1.8 million in the first year.

“With more than 41 million Americans already dependent on trade, we look forward to working with TFA to communicate the benefits of trade agreements to constituencies across the country,” said Joshua Bolten, president and CEO of Business Roundtable.

“We believe that even more opportunities can be created through expanded trade, improvements in existing agreements and the negotiation of new agreements,” Bolten said.

Withdrawing from the three-nation deal would reduce U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico by 17.4 percent each, lower American companies’ global exports by 2.5 percent and diminish the purchasing power of the average American household by almost $654 due to higher prices and lower wages caused by increased tariffs, the Business Roundtable report said. 

Mexico and Canada are the two largest export markets for the United States.

“The jobs of more than 2 million men and women are supported by the export of U.S.-manufactured goods to Canada and Mexico, while the U.S.-Korea economic partnership supports the jobs of hundreds of thousands more manufacturing workers,” said Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.

“We are committed to not only building upon existing outcomes that are so vital to manufacturing’s success in America, but also to doing what we can to make them even better,” Timmons said.