Thread: South Carolina farmers share concerns about NAFTA, immigration with Agriculture Secre

South Carolina farmers share concerns about NAFTA, immigration with Agriculture Secretary Perdue



January 27, 2018

Jamid Lovegrove


HOPKINS — From big picture worries about immigration and federal budget cuts to granular concerns about the intricacies of cotton pricing, South Carolina farmers bent the ear of the nation's top agriculture official Saturday, just as negotiations over the the next farm bill approach a critical period.


U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue held town hall-style meetings with a few dozen farmers and producers after touring City Roots urban farm in Columbia and Manchester Farms quail processing facility in Hopkins with South Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers.



The South Carolina trip came just days after Perdue unveiled the his top priorities for the next farm bill. The current $900 billion version of the sweeping legislation, which includes food stamps along with many farming subsidies and regulations, is set to expire in September.

One consistent concern from farmers was President Donald Trump's threats to end the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Perdue sought to assuage those fears, telling the farmers he's increasingly optimistic.



During Trump's campaign, Perdue said, the candidate got the impression NAFTA is universally reviled. When he got into office, Perdue said he showed the president a map highlighting all of the pro-Trump areas around the country that support the 24-year-old trade agreement.



"As forceful and as determined and as directive as he can be sometimes, he’s got the essence of a good leader: He listens,” said Perdue, a former Georgia governor. “There’s a little backdoor and, if you get in, you can change his mind about some things, and to his credit he acknowledges those sorts of things."



Several farmers also raised concerns about the future of immigration policy, currently under the spotlight in Washington, telling Perdue about the vital role Latin American migrant workers played in the state's agricultural workforce.



"Let them come in documented so we don't have to hide them out on the farms," one attendee suggested.



Perdue responded that he hears about the labor issue all over the country and has made sure Trump and Stephen Miller, one of the president's top advisers on immigration, are cognizant of the impact on agriculture.



Though less critical for farmers, perhaps the most contentious issue in the farm bill negotiations will be food stamps, which make up by far the largest share of the five-year legislation.

With a strong economy and Trump's desire to cut the federal budget, Perdue argued now is the time to make the food stamp program more efficient.

"We want to be compassionate and generous to those people truly in need, people who’ve lost their jobs, people who by health emergency need a temporary hand-up and handout," Perdue said. "But for the able-bodied adults without dependents who can work, we think the best social program we can devise is a job."



At Manchester Farms, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster joined Perdue and Weathers for lunch and told the farmers that South Carolina is primed for an agriculture surge.


"If we use our heads and have some vision, I think that our industry, agribusinesss, is just in its infancy," McMaster said.

Perdue's tour of the Midlands marked the second visit to South Carolina from a high-ranking Trump administration official in as many days. On Friday, Ivanka Trump touted the tax reform bill that passed through Congress in a Greenville event with U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-North Charleston.



Weathers said he invited Perdue to South Carolina to hear the same concerns he often receives from farmers as he travels around the state.


"But they were nicer to him," Weathers quipped.



https://www.postandcourier.com/polit...002272c78.html

Related:


USDA secretary wants separate immigration program for agricultural workers


https://www.alipac.us/f12/usda-secre...orkers-356241/

One consistent concern from farmers was President Donald Trump's threats to end the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Perdue sought to assuage those fears, telling the farmers he's increasingly optimistic.

They have every reason to be optimistic. Trump has now had over 13 months to deal with the NAFTA issue. Personally, I think the Trump administration is stalling because they're afraid they'll upset those folks in the agricultural industry if the do anything meaningful to change the program. Furthermore, I don't think Trump has any intention of ending NAFTA as he promised during his campaign.

During Trump's campaign, Perdue said, the candidate got the impression NAFTA is universally reviled. When he got into office, Perdue said he showed the president a map highlighting all of the pro-Trump areas around the country that support the 24-year-old trade agreement.

Purdue is actively working against the best interest of the United States. No surprise though, it was sort of expected that the 'big ole gator' Purdue would do his best to ensure the agricultural industry got a free hand in its continued use of cheap labor.

Related: (Full Article)




Ag Secretary Says Trump Open to Allowing Immigrant Farm Workers To Stay In U.S.




April 28, 2018

Peggy Lowe



U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday said President Trump may be open to creating a way for some undocumented immigrant workers to stay in the U.S. and Perdue is already working on a “blueprint” of policy guidelines to offer the president.


Refusing to call it a pathway to citizenship, Perdue says he would like to find a solution that would allow workers in the ag industry to remain in the U.S. legally. That’s despite Trump’s campaign promises to step up deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Trump met with farmers this week and heard about the challenges they face keeping laborers for dairies or field work, Perdue says.

“He understands that there are long-term immigrants, sometimes undocumented immigrant laborers, out here on the farms, many of them that are doing a great job, contributing to the economy of the United States,” Perdue says. “That is not his focus nor will that be my focus.”


Perdue says he’s hired a labor lawyer to help design the program that can help keep undocumented workers here, but remove criminals, which is what Trump wants. Perdue says he’s hired an attorney away from the American Farm Bureau.


“I’m hoping she can provide the president and his administration a blueprint and a program of how we can separate and divide and understand who are the immigrants that are contributing to American society and contributing (to) putting … that food on the table and the fiber that we need for clothes, ” Perdue says.


The move is a turnaround for both Perdue and Trump, who said during the presidential campaign that he would deport almost all undocumented immigrants.

Many of the most powerful agriculture industry groups have pushed Washington to complete comprehensive reform to the immigration system that would allow for more legal foreign farmworkers. More than 70 percent of farm workers are foreign-born and half of those are in the U.S. illegally, according to the USDA.

More recently, Trump told a private meeting with TV anchors that he would consider immigration reform that would provide a legal pathway for people in the U.S. illegally. He has not made similar remarks publically since taking office.

Perdue said during his Senate confirmation hearings that he supported making it easier for dairy farmers to employ immigrants. Yet in 2006 as governor of Georgia, he instituted a major crackdown on illegal immigration, which resulted in a crisis for farmers who couldn’t find labor.

Daniel M. Kowalski, an attorney and editor of Bender’s Immigration Bulletin, said he’s surprised and pleased with the news.

“This new benefit for ag workers could be an entering wedge of reform, opening up relief for DACA (“Dreamer”) kids, their parents, refugees, and more,” Kowalski says. “It will take sustained pressure from families and small businesses to convince Trump and Congress that immigrants are a benefit, not a burden.”

If Perdue’s plan moves forward, Congress may have to pass a bill creating a new visa program or provide tweaks to the existing H-2A and H-2B visas, Kowalski says. Or perhaps the Trump Administration would direct the Department of Homeland Security to order Immigration and Customs Enforcement to exercise prosecutorial discretion to resist deporting all of the people they arrest, he says.

Perdue wouldn’t offer the specifics of his plan and said it’s in its early stages.

“I’m trying to describe the heart of the president and my heart regarding how we treat people, some people here who are undocumented who have been working in the United States for a number of years,” Perdue says. “Those people are different than the criminal people, illegal criminals preying on the population of the United States of America.”


https://www.alipac.us/f9/uh-oh-ag-se...ay-u-s-346548/

More than 70 percent of farm workers are foreign-born and half of those are in the U.S. illegally, according to the USDA.

More recently, Trump told a private meeting with TV anchors that he would consider immigration reform that would provide a legal pathway for people in the U.S. illegally. He has not made similar remarks publically since taking office.

Perdue said during his Senate confirmation hearings that he supported making it easier for dairy farmers to employ immigrants.

Trouble! Before all this is over, trump will amnesty/legal pathway millions. Certainly not his campaign platform and the reason he was voted into office.
He is part of the swamp now.

trump should realize that all drug cartel members w/o a criminal records will be part of a pathway to citizenship - along with many amnestied illegals continuing to be their cover. It is ridiculous - DEA has maps of their operational territory, yet trump is not putting 2+2 together. Like how can they operate so well, make $$$$$, when they are illegally in this country? Remove all illegals and there will be no foreign drug cartels in the USA - open borders never should have been allowed.

artist, that article was during the campaign so I think it's dated. That aside, Trump said on the campaign trail over and over and over that his deportations would be based on the following priorities and then after all of these priorities were out, they would decide what to do with those still here:

Trump priorities for deportations during campaign:

1) criminals including multiple misdemeanors
2) visa overstays
3) those abusing welfare
4) immigration control violators

Originally Posted by Judy

artist, that article was during the campaign so I think it's dated. That aside, Trump said on the campaign trail over and over and over that his deportations would be based on the following priorities and then after all of these priorities were out, they would decide what to do with those still here:

Trump priorities for deportations during campaign:

1) criminals including multiple misdemeanors
2) visa overstays
3) those abusing welfare
4) immigration control violators

The comment regarding what they would decide to do with those still here after the priorities is code for amnesty. Such talk is why I never fully trusted Trump. Just saying .....

Originally Posted by MW

The comment regarding what they would decide to do with those still here after the priorities is code for amnesty. Such talk is why I never fully trusted Trump. Just saying .....

Exactly, so we all knew. I knew. You knew. So why the mantra that you didn't know?! I would rather have someone who solves 87% of the problem, the % I figured up and posted as to the number of illegal aliens who would be deported under these 4 priorities, with the potential that the other 13% would screw up and become one by the time enforcement gets to them, or they're swooped up as part of the run on the others which Trump made clear would happen than someone who di dn't want to do any of this hard work for US.

Originally Posted by Judy

Exactly, so we all knew. I knew. You knew. So why the mantra that you didn't know?! I would rather have someone who solves 87% of the problem, the % I figured up and posted as to the number of illegal aliens who would be deported under these 4 priorities, with the potential that the other 13% would screw up and become one by the time enforcement gets to them, or they're swooped up as part of the run on the others which Trump made clear would happen than someone who di dn't want to do any of this hard work for US.

Huh, I never pretended I didn't know. That's one of the reasons I never fully trusted trump. If he would talk about amnesty in one situation, he could possibly be amendable to it in any situation. Furthermore, I think your percentages are way off.

Trash talking NAFTA puts the Texas economy at risk

Trash talking NAFTA puts the Texas economy at risk

By Chris Tomlinson

Texans should be very worried about the North American Free Trade Agreement talks underway this week in Mexico City, and hopeful that our voluble and volatile president keeps his cool.

For weeks now, President Donald Trump has slammed Canada and Mexico, our most important trading partners, with his typical pregame trash talk. But with time running out and the rhetoric escalating, the Texas economy is at risk.

Our state exports more goods and services to Mexico than to any other country, generating an $8.5 billion trade surplus that supports Texas businesses and jobs. Mexico is also a major buyer of Texas natural gas and petroleum products, which we have in excess.

RELATED: Trump tariffs will cost American jobs

The northeast U.S., meanwhile, exported more natural gas to Canada than it imported for the first time last year.

If Trump withdraws the U.S. from NAFTA, much of that business could be lost. The oil and gas industry would be especially hard hit as services companies find it more expensive to ship equipment south of the border.

Mexico represents a huge opportunity for Texas businesses, growing so fast it could soon surpass France to become the world's ninth-largest economy.

This growing market is extremely attractive to energy companies because U.S. demand is stagnant.

Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs, Luis Videgaray, said the energy sector was an important topic at a recent meeting of North American foreign ministers.

"The North American region has the natural resources and the human and technical capabilities to be a region of not only abundant energy, but cheap and clean energy that could transform our societies and our economies," he said. "We have set ourselves the aim of creating a regulatory framework ... that identifies synergies where there may be joint planning of infrastructure, but above all, enables the private sector."

Those plans, however, depend on NAFTA. And Canada's lead negotiator, Steve Verheul, told the Canadian Global Affairs Institute that talks are not going well.

"The main issue is that we have seen limited U.S. flexibility on fairly easy issues," Verheul said. "This is being driven to a large extent from the top, from the administration."

Time is running out.

The Mexican presidential campaign begins on March 30, and current President Enrique Peña Nieto is barred from running again. With Mexico-U.S. relations a hot topic, and a leftist, anti-NAFTA candidate leading in opinion polls, conservative Mexican officials will likely delay further negotiations until after the July 1 election.

That would restart the talks during the U.S. election season. Republican lawmakers and the U.S. business community are already urging Trump to take a softer line on NAFTA rather than politicize foreign trade any further.

"NAFTA has created a North American energy market that benefits American consumers, creates American jobs and promotes US national security interests," said Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's lead lobby group. "If a modernized NAFTA cannot be finalized, the administration must retain its commitment to the current trade agreement."

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a White House meeting with Republicans and Democrats last week he was making progress, but it's been tough.

"There was a lot of anxiety at one point as to whether or not we'd be in a position where we would have to withdraw in order to get a good agreement," he said. "We have a number of issues that we still have to work our way through, but I'm hopeful that we'll be in the position — I think that's most important — to get a good deal."

Sen. John Cornyn told the Reuters news agency afterward that he is "more optimistic" that Trump won't terminate NAFTA, which he called important to economic growth.

"We just encouraged him to continue to modernize NAFTA," Cornyn said.

Mexico and Canada, meanwhile, are negotiating better deals elsewhere. Both are members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and are currently negotiating improved free trade agreements with the European Union.

The last time NAFTA talks were held in Mexico City, Peña Nieto cut short his attendance to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Xiamen, China.

"They have reached a consensus on the development of a pragmatic cooperation between our two countries," Qiu Xiaoqi, the Chinese ambassador to Mexico, told the Mexican newspaper Excelsior afterward.

That's what happens in geopolitics when a partner starts behaving like a bully -- sovereign countries look for new friends and allies.

Texans need the business NAFTA generates, and we need our representatives in Washington to fight for it. Scrapping the deal is simply unacceptable.

This round of NAFTA talks is slated to end March 5, and no one believes that a new deal will be reached. The best we can hope for is an agreement to meet again after the November elections.

And to make no sudden moves before then.

Trash talking NAFTA puts the Texas economy at risk