Their support for the nafta agreement, that were to revamp nafta. Live coverage on cspan2. The president of the American Farm bureau federation, ron bonnett, president of the Canadian Federation of agriculture, and the president of the agro in mexico. These men will get there dues that should happen with modernization of nafta. No matter what you may have heard there is a great deal our nations have in common and can agree upon. They will get your opening remarks, after that we will have a signing of a letter and minister freeland and chief negotiators for the treaty. After that we will open the floor to questions. If you have a question at the press club please wait for a microphone so that people on the phone can hear the question you are asking. The floor is yours. Thank all of you for attending today. This is an important day to american agriculture, canadian agriculture and mexican every culture and we show our unity together and i want to thank mister bonnett for being with us today and joining us in talking about modernization of nafta trade treaty. Everyone in the room know that American Farmers and ranchers value trade relationships with the closest neighbors, canada and mexico, they are number one and number 3 customers in the United States, exports, and they are the top two suppliers of agricultural imports, our trade relations are important on the stage here. We have a vital interest in helping neighbors make improvements, to do no harm to the games we have gained in nafta. We are committed to preserving and expanding upon the gains agriculture has achieved and ensure a modernized nafta continues to be a success story, north America Farmers and ranchers was we want timely enforcement of trade agreements and prompt resolutions to disputes that might arise in the new modernization treaty. And 137 billion this year, forecast of agriculture imports of 104. 5 billion, giving us a trade surplus and a surplus, 22. 5 billion. The criticism of trade deals, we in agriculture want our negotiators to know the trade deals in open markets are largely beneficial to American Farmers and ranchers and communities we live in and do our business in, raise our families. There will be opportunities during these negotiations to talk about issues concerning us with commodities. It is important to enter these talks with cool heads and focus on the common goals, agree that trade helps all our citizens and farmers and ranchers in our countries and look forward to a better agreement, that modernized modern agriculture. Ron bonnett of the canadian agriculture. Thank you to the hospitality, we had the opportunity it gave us an opportunity to exchange views where things are going, between mister devol and i think we realize there was a lot of Common Ground we can build on. Ministers and secretaries make opening remarks on renegotiation of nafta and it is interesting in the opening comments we heard the word agriculture a number of times, leadership in all three countries recognizing agriculture is important, we are farm leaders of all three count countries must exist farmers and ranchers must be heard as negotiations proceed. I think press for coming out on an issue of great importance to economies of all three countries. American farm bureau and mexico, it is appropriate to try to find Common Ground we had when we moved forward and we are we have prepared a joint statement and subsequent letter to our negotiators based on the principle of do no harm. For agriculture, nafta, if we look at the changes since 1994, trade between our countries has grown exponentially. We must build on this success. With canada, us, we have 56 billion in reciprocal trade and the us has a surplus at this time, mexico and canada, additional trade, mexico has a slight surplus. Canada is the top export market for 29 us states but as farm leaders we have outlined Common Ground from the path forward. There are five areas we agreed on. One is focused on increased and improved regulatory alignment. The secondary is looking at improving the flow of goods at border crossings. The third is further alignment of sciencebased measures and with that bouncy term that is human, animal and plant health issues. The elimination of nonsciencebased technical barriers to trade is another barrier we concentrate on and adapting agreement to Technology Advances that have been made 1994. The internet digitally, those were not even thought of. In closing i would like to heckle what was said this morning. We have a relationship based on trust and understanding. Agriculture has been a success. And remember, do no harm. Thank you. Finally, the president of senator. American farm bureau. Translator members of the press and members of cna. We have the privilege of our secretaries of agriculture, sunny purdue from the United States, Lawrence Mclaren from canada, they have been sending signals together to Work Together as a team. First of all, at the georgia meeting where they were present. And in mexico, where mister perdue they were together. Today our secretary took a great example of construction and understandable. And the primary production. In cordiality and respect. And they are expressing the agriculture sector. I want to remember you the National Council of agriculture represents 80 of mexico. And 75 of exports. As well as growers, recognizing United States and canada as great partners complementary. I belong to the thirdgeneration of growers, an american or canadian commercial partner. We understand the primary production is vital for the economy. A commercial block, more successful. We will be more competitive. Making more strongly in north america. We can go out to new markets in asia, south america and europe. The National Council of agriculture is in favor of commercial violence, more and the National Council would be looking always to maintain competitive in the markets. [speaking in native tongue] translator we are committed to looking for better marketing access into the countries. The fight should be treated by profit. In addition, in order the risk of each one. For modernization of nafta should be should be made as strong as the trade in the union. And contributes to the development of the partners. Mister bennett. [speaking in native tongue] translator i celebrate the private sectors of free countries. We are together taking care of main concerns of the sector. We are very clear from the point of view of mexico, we have been talking with the government. We are not exchanging for any other economic activity. Thank you for being here especially with your tight schedules. And you can count on mexico to be to gather. Thank you very much. Thank you, we will have a ceremonial signing to minister freelands, robert light heiser of the United States, gentlemen. [applause] thank you, gentlemen. Thanks to the effort of the staff. Very good. Okay. Thank you, sir. We can open the floor to questions, please wait for the mic so people can hear you. Where is the microphone . There you are. Just to start off, i would like to get your reaction to the Opening Statement today in which he said although nafta benefited us formers and border communities it fundamentally fails Many Americans and would need major improvements and tweaking and updating a few chapters would not be acceptable. What concerns does that raise in terms of possible trade offs . Of course it concerns us that we would have that mentioned upfront, but our stand is we do no harm. This has been a good trade treaty for north american agriculture from mexico to canada. We want to make sure we have that as i always heard loud and clear we dont want to harm the gains we had in it. The president of the United States is my president too, played a major role in getting him elected and he promised not only to make treaties more fair for the American People but all the American People and i dont see them doing harm to this treaty that has been good for agriculture. There might be concerned but agriculture, in the fact that it was very much singled out that agriculture was a shining example of how the success could work and back to mister devols statement of do no harm, we have to ensure that that message is heard loud and clear, and in part, the three of us decided very quickly that we needed to make a statement to the negotiators that we have something that works, dont do something and negotiate something that will undermine that because that will undermine not only farmers and ranchers but all of the jobs related to farmers and ranchers in all three countries. [speaking in native tongue] translator i have the opportunity to be in the press conference. [speaking in native tongue] translator i was very glad to hear the senator mentioned several times, what we have with some products like corn and soy. [speaking in native tongue] translator recognizing the importance of the sector for the United States. And i think that is a very good signal from the beginning. For the coming of our countries. In the back. Identify your organization if you could. Bloomberg radio. Mention was made of improving regulation on the basis of science and other regulations, barriers to trade. Would you elaborate on what you mean by that . And i get the impression the american side that you would be better off if trump had never raised this issue in the first place. Tell me about that and i will pass the microphone to my colleague. From bloomberg news, quick question. I was recently in florida talking to growers about their concerns and they have a different perspective than american agriculture on nafta. I direct this question to mister devol about the concerns florida growers have with mexican shipments in the case of food inspections, labor rates, wages in mexico, food safety standards. For mister devol i wonder if theres anything you can do to address those concerns without setting bad precedent for us farmers in other areas. Im wondering what areas ucs under discussion that would create, there are eight questions. You talked about sciencebased and technical barriers, that could be a number of things, the scientific process is the same for approval so we dont have to go through a separate series of hoops on the approval, you talk about technical barriers, one of the things we discussed at lunch was the idea of inspection services. If there is an inspection approved in one country and accepted by the other three, one inspection should suffice. It should not be reinspected every time it moves across the border. All those things will streamline costs for producers and streamline costs for the consumers of those products. That goes back to the theory of building on what has been working and trying to streamline the processes on regulations and technical barriers so we get closer to harmonization. I hope that answers the question. [speaking in native tongue] translator we went a for trade with rules of commerce. The topic in transference and based on science. We are agreed that our country maintains this chapter in controversial solution. The labor topics in each country, should be addressing their own things. Mexico has an agreement and is working very hard in this process. The question you asked. When it comes to farmers in florida, northeastern Dairy Farmers, upper midwest, some areas have some concerns. What could i do to change that . Our organization, all these organizations have very Good Communications with our government, my communication mostly through secretarys office and we keep them informed as to where there are issues that we can approach to try to solve. It comes down to deciding we are really a region of these three countries and for us to bound together a very strong region is important to show the rest of the world, it will be important in future negotiations and trade treaties. We have to set our feelings aside and tell each other we have problems. We do have a problem in florida and the northeast, we have a problem in certain areas and lets have some rules around this treaty, swift decisions on how we solve these problems because time means money. We cant afford for them to be in limbo when there is a problem with the trade treaty. We have to bind together this region, discuss what our problems have to do with each other and have solutions. [speaking in native tongue] translator we could go into an analogy statebystate and an interesting thing will happen. In the Global Vision of the trade between mexico, the United States and canada, mexico has winners and losers. The corn in mexico. During a serious problem of competition. Mexico is standing solids. And we are receiving a very important volume of grains. I wanted to add something you mentioned about chapter 19 resolution. With any trade agreement it is almost mandatory that there be a mechanism in place to deal with disputes when they arise. Having a trade agreement that doesnt have some type of format for how you resolve this is creating a trade agreement that doesnt have any portion of it but from our perspective and the canadian governments perspective this resolution is critical as the agreement goes forward. Penny star with breitbart news. On one of your lists, you talk about improved flow of goods at border crossings. Can you address how that fits in with Border Security and your concerns about that . From a canadian perspective i live close to the us border. One of the issues we find is hold ups at the border with perishable products, delay of several hours and go from having a very valuable cargo to one that is worth nothing. Finding ways to get a preapproved clearance, Electronic Filing using all the new technologies available, so when that truck hits the border, the truck, the driver, everybody is preapproved, recognizing in the world we are living in, you have to have security clearance but i was at the airport coming from the United States the other day and people going to the next line go through a lot faster than people who dont. It is a similar approach to goods being transported across the border as we are doing at border entry for people. Speaking to the immigration issue, that is something im not an expert in, we would leave that up to the experts to handle that but we can speak the issue, it is important that when we deliver products to our neighbors, coming and good quality, that quality is determined by how quickly and swiftly it can get through the borders. Translator i believe we have the commitment of national security. And lights turn into fields or certification. On the process. And expedited supervision at the border. And when ripe to it. To contribute to the safety. The questions on the phone. Putting speaker on, name and organization please. Please proceed with your question. Thanks for taking my call. Other gentlemen concerned about trump administrations fixation on reducing manufacturing trade deficit and might hurt and interest that benefited nafta. We carry that concern, the first question we answered was close to that but we have a concern, what we did in this trade treaty to this point. We went from 8 billion of trade in america to 38 billion of trade in the last time of nafta, we wont do arm to that and if possible even make it better for all three countries agriculturalwise. We understand there are manufacturing problems and we leave that up to experts to have that conversation and continue to impress on them we do not want them to use us as a trading tool to do harm to our by and large agriculture and trade is much more balanced than manufacturing trade and dont want to see agriculture sacrificed. We have done a good job taking advantage of opportunities so why should we be penalized for that . [speaking in native tongue] translator in mexico there is an up session about the deficit. But we want to say mexico is representing only 8 . And we can say 70 , it is from a north american company. To the United States. And made in mexico forms 40 of components made in the region. And the outcome from other parties has an integration of 8 to 12 . In the Agricultural Sector we have a lot of canadian and United StatesCompany Investing in mexico, exporting mexico to their own countries and the changed value, in any case of the exporters. The destination country, canada or United States. Some important commercial partner or investment, investor or shareholder. Thank you. Can we hold on for a question from the floor, operator . Go ahead. Both the us and mexico said they to finish negotiations as soon as possible, ideally by next year because upcoming auctions in both countries. If you could comment on whether that is a realistic timeline and if you could comment on longer negotiations that are drawn out, the agricultural markets, thank you. Mexico has two plans. For first is to conclude the negotiation or modernization of the agreement as soon as possible. Affecting the sense of the free trade agreement. The idea will be we will be finished in january. It is not we will wait until the timing and essence of the treatment will come. The understanding that nafta will continue operating, we will wait. We say in the aviation, in a few cases in the very the case the United States decides to please nafta, mexico, with omc. One comment. I am caught in the middle here. However, one of these things, number one is going to be up to the negotiators to determine what the timeframe is going to be as to when these are finalized but our role this is to ensure the concerns of farmers and ranchers and countries i heard as we go through the negotiation but one comment i would make, negotiators go through this, any discussions take place in the public builds on confidence of a trading relationship and not undermine that confidence. Every day we have farme