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NEFB outlines its 2025 trade agenda for Trump administration
The leader of a state farm bureau organization is asking the Trump administration to prioritize expanding US market access.
Nebraska’s Mark McHargue says new trade agreements could help bring additional value to commodities. “Knowing that so much of our income comes from the ability to trade our commodities around the world, we need and have to do more to open up our global markets.”
He says eliminating non-tariff trade barriers like phytosanitary and biotech issues could also help. “We have a big world out there that want our products and need our products. Our products are the safest. We produce them economically in a manner that is very doable to get them around the world and still have high impact.
A new report from the organization showed the value of Nebraska ag exports dropped 21 percent in 2023 to $7.9 billion.
McHargue says the decline is extremely concerning but is confident the Administration’s policies can help reverse the trend. “That includes addressing our economic relationship with China. If we can also eliminate some of these non-tariff barriers, I really believe that we can return to a surplus in our ag trade deficit and fix that. It has the be the goal.”
The 2023 Nebraska International Agriculture Trade Report, which is compiled using the latest data from the USDA, says the value of Nebraska’s commodity exports also dropped. Corn declined 36 percent, soybeans 25 percent and beef 14 percent.
It also showed that Nebraska remained the fifth largest ag exporting state in the U.S.