Ag News: NAFTA Threat to USMCA
**President Trump is considering cancelation of the North American Free Trade Agreement to force passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Former White House director of legislative affairs, Marc Short tells agweb.com, believes the President will probably withdraw from NAFTA before the USMCA even reaches Congress, presenting a difficult choice.
ProFarmer’s Jim Wiesemeyer says if the U.S. formally withdraws from NAFTA, Trump would set a 6-month deadline for Congress to approve the USMCA or face reintroduced tariffs on portions of the approximately $1.3 trillion worth of trade.
**This is the time of year California farmers are usually packing and shipping millions of cartons of oranges to China, but not this year.
California Citrus Mutual president Joel Nelsen tells Agri-Pulse business is off 80% this year. That’s because Chinese importers are looking elsewhere for oranges to avoid paying the 51% tax on U.S. oranges.
A year ago, California farmers sold nearly 20,000 metric tons to China and Hong Kong.
**As the government shutdown continues into 2019, traders are concerned the January 11th World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report will be delayed.
Allendale’s Paul Georgy tells agweb.com this could cause a surge of USDA data to be released within a short period of time.
In addition, export sales reports from USDA are on hold, which has traders speculating continued purchases by China.
Negotiations between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to start today.
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