Bill Tomson

Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee united Tuesday to support the Trump administration’s efforts to force reform at the World Trade Organization by neutering its appellate court.

Mexico is withdrawing its objection to a labor provision in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that threatened to derail the USMCA approval process, which is expected to take a major step forward this week in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mexico is now protesting a provision tucked into the recently revised U.S. version of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that calls for the U.S. to install five new attaches in Mexico to monitor the country’s labor reform efforts.

China has agreed to purchase $40 billion to $50 billion in U.S. agricultural commodities annually for two years as well as remove significant ag trade barriers, a senior Trump administration official told reporters Friday.

The U.S. and China have signed off on a partial, “Phase One,” trade pact that includes a Chinese pledge to buy tens of billions of dollars of U.S. farm commodities, President Donald Trump said Friday.

The Trump administration has reached a tentative trade deal with China, according to news reports that come the same day President Donald Trump tweeted that an agreement was “very close.”

The House is still on track to vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement next week, but several Republican senators are complaining that they won’t have a say in the process like they are meant to under the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) law.

President Donald Trump remains resolute that China commit to specific promises on amounts of U.S. ag commodities that it would buy as part of a trade pact, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday.

The U.S. agriculture sector — from pork producers to vegetable farmers — is relishing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agreement to a deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but farm groups won’t be satisfied until the House and Senate ratify the trade pact.

Brazil’s soybean harvest will be coming in a little later than normal this season, but farmers are expected to have a bumper crop.