WASHINGTON, July 18, 2016 - The Agri-Pulse team is
on hand in Cleveland today as the Republican National Convention begins. We’ll
be talking to delegates and policy makers and also watching efforts by the GOP
and the Trump campaign on the sidelines of the convention to reach out to the
agriculture sector.
The feature event for the farm and ag sector will be
Wednesday with the Great American Farm Luncheon. A representative of Trump’s
campaign will be on hand along with the chairmen of the House and Senate
Agriculture committees, Mike Conaway and Pat Roberts, respectively.
Conaway
told Agri-Pulse that he would like to hear Trump start talking about the
positive impact that trade has on the U.S. economy and farmers in
particular. But Trump gave no sign of doing that during his news conference
Saturday where he introduced Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate. Trump
said voters are “tired of a country that has terrible trade deals,” and he called
the North American Free Trade Agreement the “worst economic deal in the history
of our country.”
During a joint interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes last night,
Trump repeatedly interrupted Pence when the governor was pressed to explain his
differences with Trump over the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade
deals. Pence insisted that they both support free trade, and he called Trump
“one of the best negotiators in the world.”
Warming for race? Vilsack attacks Trump. There’s
continued speculation that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack could wind up as
Hillary Clinton’s running mate, and Vilsack was harshly critical of Trump
during an
interview over the weekend with NBC News in Iowa. Vilsack compared
Trump to disgraced financier Bernie Madoff.
During the interview, Vilsack also brushed off suggestions
that he isn’t adequately prepared to handle foreign policy. Vilsack made the
point that food and agriculture is vital to international relations, citing a
meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan where the monarch asked for help bringing
agriculture to Syria.
USDA moves into Havana. Vilsack announced Saturday that
he’s been given the green light to send a temporary USDA representative to the
U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
Vilsack, speaking at the National Governors’ Association
meeting in Des Moines, said he’ll send his new envoy to Havana in August for a
three-month detail while the department works on making the position permanent.
And that’s where Congress comes in. A USDA official tells Agri-Pulse that
the Obama administration is asking appropriators for an extra $1.5 million in
fiscal 2017 to keep a lasting presence in the island nation.
Cuba already imports U.S. agriculture commodities, but
farmers, lawmakers and USDA officials believe that by building better ties with
the country and chipping away at the long-standing trade embargo, the U.S.
could be selling a lot more corn, soybeans, chicken and dairy products.
Closer to the finish line on T-TIP negotiations. U.S.
and EU negotiators have accomplished plenty, including agreements to eliminate
duties on 97 percent of trade tariffs, but there’s still a long way to go on
other issues, says U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
“We've got text on the table in nearly all of the
negotiating areas and we're now deep into the process of resolving differences
and negotiating agreement text,” said Froman, speaking in Brussels at the 14th
round of T-TIP negotiations.
Negotiators met all last week and will sit down again today
to begin a second week of talks in this latest round. One of the big issues the
negotiators hope to make headway on this week is an agreement on how to align
procedures for import inspections and sanitary and phytosanitary audits.
Froman gets TPP support from governors. Froman joined a
group of governors at the National Governors’ Association meeting to promote
the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and urge support for approval of
the 12-nation tract pact before the end of the year.
Governors Terry Branstad of Iowa, Terry McCauliffe of
Virginia and John Bel Edwards of Louisisana joined Froman at a press
conference. The Associated
Press quoted McCauliffe as saying: "The rhetoric in this presidential
campaign has been so over the top,” and predicting that "once we get
through the presidential election, more common sense will prevail."
AFL-CIO to dog candidates on TPP. AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka says his organization is going to be doing its
best to persuade lawmakers not to ratify the TPP this year after the
November elections.
AFL-CIO members will be working to pin down lawmakers on
their TPP opposition or support ahead of the elections, Trumka told reporters.
“Every candidate, whether in the House or Senate, will be asked and we will
demand an answer about what they will do in the lame duck session,” he said.
Louisiana company recalls catfish. It’s not just
catfish from Vietnam that are in the sights of USDA’s Food Safety and
Inspection Service. FSIS officials have been inspecting U.S.-raised catfish since
March 1 and Friday a recall of
domestic product was issued.
Louisiana-based Haring Catfish announced it is recalling
21,521pounds of catfish after residues of gentian violet, a chemical used to
fight bacterial infections, were found.
Congress ordered FSIS to take over catfish inspection from
the FDA in the 2008 farm bill, but it wasn’t until December that FSIS issued
its final rule to do so. On April 15 FSIS began inspecting imports and since
then it has rejected two shipments because they were contaminated with gentian
violet and other chemicals.
Bill Tomson contributed to this report
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