Transcripts For CSPAN3 Panel On Trade Policy And The Agricul

Transcripts For CSPAN3 Panel On Trade Policy And The Agriculture Industry 20180213

Panel. Dont let the suit fool you. I am a farm boy from south dakota, which is why im super excited about this panel and introducing our great speakers as well as our moderator. My name is joseph schwartz. We all know that agriculture has transformed over the last century. Not just how we grow our food but how we move our food and how we trade with other countries. And so leading us through this very important global conversation is adam ferris, a moderator. Hes an alumnist at the university of oklahoma and will graduate from the u. S. Army work college with a masters in strategic studies in july. So congratulations, adam. The light is at the end of the total. Some of the students here are graduating in may in the room. Dale moore is the director of Public Policy. He joined in 2011 as the executive director of Public Policy and manager of the agriculture and trade policy team. Lisa shroeder is a global director of trade. As part of the Global Affairs and Public Policy team lisa has director responsibilities for defining and managing the companys director trade agenda as well as developing a strategy on International Aspects of corporate issues. Based in washington, d. C. Her responsibilities include trade policy negotiations and investment that foster growth and businesses through identification of policies facilitating Market Access and reducing Global Distribution costs. Kent backus is the National Cattleman and beef associations director on trade issues. Including nafta, expanding access to japan and other markets. He works with the white house and other foreign governments to advance the u. S. Beef industrys. He joined in 2010 after serving on several political campaigns in texas and working for several years as the appropriations assistant to u. S. Senator Elizabeth Dole from north carolina. Please join me in welcoming our panel for a discussion on agriculture and free trade. [ applause ] thank you very much for the introductions. As was just mentioned my name is adam ferris, and i know we have three spectacular distinguished panel today that are eager to share their insights and thoughts with you guys on the importance of free trade and agriculture. I thought it might be a good idea if the panel knew a bit more about our audience. So can we get a show of hands how many georgetown students are in the audience today . Awesome, very good. Any congressional hill staff . Couple of rows. Any executive branch folks that might be in the audience . One, nice. Thanks for being here. Thats right. So if its okay, ill open us up for introductions and then well go off into a q a session. So kent, if youll start us off. Okay, were on. Thanks so much for having us here. This is great. Let me tell you about who the National Cattlemans association is and in the industry we represent were the oldest and largest trade association representing the cattle industry. Weve been around since the 1890s and have had a presence here in washington for quite some time. We cover every aspect of production from the cow calf side all the way to retail. And thats the important thing for us to make sure that we can speak on behalf of those men and women who are producing our food who cant have a daily presence here in washington. As far as trade goes, when you look at beef production in the United States, most of what we consume or what we produce is consumed her domestically. Only about 10 to 15 is actually exported. The United States is still one of the greatest markets in the world for beef consumption and beef sales. In the United States beef industry, we dominate here. So weve got a saturated market here. They a very developed Consumer Base. So in order to increase our sales we have to look beyond our borders. You hear the statistic commonly used that 96 of the worlds consumers live outside our borders. So its important for us to try to target those different markets. For beef in particular, north america has been a great place for us. Nafta created two 1 billion markets on either side of our border. Mexico consumes a lot of cuts that americans find less desirable. Well talk that more in a little bit, but our main focus has been asia. Thats where weve seen a tremendous growth. And really over the last five years weve seen a shift in our export focus from north america to asia. In 2017 we came very close to selling about 2 billion worth of beef products to japanese consumers. And thats with a 38. 5 tariff applied to that beef. Japans pbeen a great market for us as other asian markets. Cuts like tongues, rounds, chuck shoulders, Everything Else like that we were able to sell as a premium. And really we would not be able to sell those as a premium. Thats we we target those areas. Korean is another export target. Under the korean agreement weve seen our exports double. We have a lot of opportunities in asia. Thats going to be a big focus for us, and thats also where a lot of our trade barriers still lie. Thats why we have requested so much attention from congress and the administration on efforts to focus and open the asian markets. Thats where we see a lot of potential, and thats where our focus is going to be. Exports alone account develop s very sturdy markets to help offset that volatility. Again, happy to be here today. Look forward to the questions. I can tell already ive got ahold of the microphone and i talk with my hands. So if i kind of fade in and out thank you for the opportunity to be here. I work for the American Bureau federation. We are the nations largest federation. We have roughly 600 families across the country. We have a footprint, if you will, in every state and puerto ricos. We have affiliates in our family. We also are in the Crop Insurance business and other branches of the family that are, again, part of farm bureau. One of the things in trade being one of those, when we look at trade because we represent all commodities. We represent all the different sizes of farmers and ranchers across the country. We represent certainly everybody from the organic growers to those that are using the latest high tech, bio tech kinds of approaches to managing their farms. When we look at trade roughly a third of a percent is destined for export. If you look in the Pacific Northwest wheat growers in that area anywhere from 80 to 85 of that wheat is raised for export. It also takes into account all the different scopes. You have the growth crops, cotton, and fruits and dairy crops. Hawaii and puerto rico very active in the coffee markets. Theyve had very small kind of niche markets. When it comes to trade it is fundamentally and kind of exquisitely linked. Without trade were in deep economic strife. Were looking at now going into the fifth year of down turn in terms of the economic platform, if you will, that agriculture stands on. Weve lost roughly half of the net farm income over the last five years. Most of our producers is in the commodity business. Which means the prices they get for their commodities, their crops, their live stock are not things they get to set. Theyre price takers not price makers. So when you have a commodity that is particular relying on exports, we have a little ripple right now were wrestling with china who are upset about tariffs on washington machines and solar panels, so they are in effect dropping the grain. Theyre getting our attention. Not a lot in the agculture can do with solar panels, but were working on nafta and a lot of different fronts including the fact when we pulled out of the Transpacific Partnership, the tariff on beef, we had a really good deal with japan on that. Thats not in there now, and Bilateral Agreement with some of these countries theyre pretty straightforward in telling you were not trinterested in going back to that particular drawing board. You all are going to have to start over. You could find a good number of farmers and ranchers who would say i dont understand this time thing, i dont understand it. I sell to the local meat packer or the local farm stand, and now im dealing with an issue when id much rather have you focus on the farm bill or some other issue. So trade is one where we spend as much time encouraging congress, encouraging the executive branch to Pay Attention to agriculture trade. As we do spend time out in the countryside letting our members know why this is so important. So appreciate the opportunity to be here, look forward to answering questions, and as always warn folks been in town for 30 plus years, so if the question is easy, you will get a short answer. Thank you. Lisa shroeder with dow chemical. Its a historic American Company operating not only here but around the world. We also last year merged. One of the things i want to highlight out of that merger kind of gives osgreat opportunity in looking at the agricultural sector, ag sector, entire value chain. Its not just the end product youre going to find in your super market. When we look at agriculture were looking at everything from seeds to Crop Protection technology, innovation and farm and heavy Machinery Equipment to data and packaging and the Logistics Network that actually gets that product into your super market or farm stand or wherever youre buying from. Its really important to think about that ag across that chain, because then youre getting a sense of the impact we have on economy. That is lot of jobs even from the guy thats helping to pack the truck thats on its way to our super market. And that is one of the reasons why the u. S. Has Real Advantages. We are an enormous Agricultural Producer because were also one of the most innovative territories. When you think about Crop Protection and seed technology, biotechnology has been mentioned. Thats a great example of where science is driving health, environment, yield innovation to help get the farmer more out of his crop that ends up getting more out into the food value chain. Great example is dow back in 2005 we created a new cunola oil called omega9 oils. Since thats been introduced into the market, its taken a billion pounds of fat out of the american diet. Theres a lot of innovation thats america is bringing to agriculture thats a benefit not only for our health and nutrition around the United States but around the world. We drive innovation, resource efficiency. As we look at all the Great Innovation and development of these products in america, we need to look at the export. As were growing all of this, eventually people are going to want to get paid for what theyre contributing. And that means accessing a lot of markets around the world. Tariffs have been mentioned quite a lot. And a im sure as anyone studying International Trade that tends to be the fist place most people go to. Tariff are very quantifiable, too. If you knock down the 14. 5 that japan charges, thats very much Market Access. There are real critical areas like regulatory. Regulatory barriers often become a deeper barrier to us. Innovative Crop Protection materials because you dont have import licenses to keep customer countries like china for those biotechnology products. And if you look at nafta, thats one of it reasons why were such big supporters of the agreement. There is actually a regulatory chapter specific to chemicals. And the reason thats in there and so sported by not only the u. S. Chemical industry but also mexico and canada is because its about raising the standard. Trade really gives us an opportunity to embed sound science, transparent, efficient approaches to regulatory that get to the heart of what regulations are supposed to do. Ensure high levels of health and safety while also promoting economic competitiveness. Of course to do that we fundamentally need an underlying nafta agreement. So were very hopeful progress that was made recently in montreal, we can continue to capture the good and eventually get to a modernized nafta that demonstrates the value of this integrated supply chain and market. Reasons why modernization is a good idea, data. Nafta was signed in 1994. There was not a lot of effort to think about ecommerce or digital signatures on documentation. Believe it or not there was a time when the internet was not so prevalent. We werent writing it into these agreements yet. So we need to do that. We need to think about cross data flows, customer facilitation. When you think about ag products, a computer might be able to wait at the port for a while. Most Agricultural Products cannot. So we need to make sure that custom are efficient and were able to get Great American innovation straight to our customers. I think thats one of the reasons why its such an interesting opportunity to have this conversation with all of you because there really have been a lot of changes in the way agriculture is produced in this country and the opportunities we see in the rest of the world. So ill stop there because im always much more interested in your questions and discussion than hearing myself prattle on. Thank you, lisa and kent. I definitely want to leave a lot of time for the audience to answer and questions as well. I think its important for the panel to hear from the audience than it is for the panel to hear from the audience today. If i could i think ill start with a general question about trade and agriculture that a lot of you had a in your opening remarks, but just wanted to leave an opportunity to mention anything else on this. Ag has been an important part of trading for years. Weve had a surplus in products for many years, and some of you economy majors will know what im talking about. Can each of you talk a bit about why ag has been such a success in trade compared to other industries . Im going to start out because that way i can give a general answer and ill let the smart folks answer after me. Fundamentally is because when you look around the goodies and services we have and the marketplace across the world, there are a number of good, solid markets for agricultural food, fiber, feed where their economy doesnt have them clamoring for the latest iphone or whatever it might be. And secondly a lot of us need to eat. I had an opportunity to participate with one of the industrial colleges. And one of things they look at is most of time when we have men and women in harms way is food available, period . And thats a Real Advantage. You get the opportunity to develop a market. We also cotton is a great example where for a variety of reasons our textile industry has really dropped off, but we export about 70 of our raw cotton and feed that Economic Development in those countries. So it is not really food, but it is Agricultural Production that helps feed the economy, not just the people around the world. I would just add to that, the point i was raising about innovation, i think in particular when you look at american agriculture, whether it is, you know, getting the food out that solves a lot of these food sustainability, Food Security issues or looking at the broader opportunity of integrating things like packaging so that we can get more product out to markets safely, when you look at cotton production the science and the opportunity to develop not only just selling cotton but cotton thats actually customized. Were creating solution products so that customers in other parts of the world have products that are really going to fit their marketplace, whether it is, you know, a cotton thats more specific to highend clothing versus lowend. Theres a great amount of American Science and technology that goes into these productions so that it makes our product more valuable. There is a desire to buy from america when you know you are getting the quality that you need and a solution thats going to help you be more successful. Thats a Real Advantage we have in the world, providing we can get access to those markets. Yeah. I think just biggie backing off what she is saying there, when you talk about quality, i think you can dive a little further into that and really look at safety. The products that we produce here are produced at some of the highest standards in the world. We have we have not only a very intelligent and educated producer group, most of our people have fouryear degrees and higher. These are scientists that are producing our food when you really look at it there. Not only that, but the strict standards that are applied to us in production, we dont have to worry about a lot of the same problems they do in other countries. We also have very strong Environmental Standards here, too. So when you look at the quality thats there, a lot of that comes from safety. You also have to look at where our growth is, and it is in asia. In asia you have a rising middle class that wants to incorporate more protein into their diet. For us specifically, we produce some of the safest, highestquality beef in the world, but not only just beef but pork, poultry. You go down the line on any agricultural good, were at the top. People pay for that. They pay for peace of mind, because in many cases theyve had incidents where people have gotten sick or died. There have been stories, we all read them, thats why were concerned about standards coming from some of these markets. But in nothose countries weve been able to develop a trust with the consumer, and with their Economic Growth and the demand for our goods that many of them, quite fr

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