Trade issues continue to make some of the biggest headlines for the agricultural industry. For our new deal with Mexico and Canada, the hope is that the House will vote on it and pass it tomorrow even though the Senate won’t consider it until next year. On the U.S.-China trade deal, agriculture is still trying to figure out how much more product we will be sending them starting next year. President Trump says it’s going to mean 40 to 50 billion dollars in year in agricultural sales but the breakdown shows that total will also include energy and manufactured goods sales to China. The most U.S. agricultural products the Chinese have ever bought from us was just under $26 billion in 2012. Numbers also show that because of tariffs our ag sales to China in 2018 dropped by 68 percent compared with 2017.
While trade issues are getting better in regards to China, Mexico and Canada, there is real concern our trade relations with the European Union are getting worse. The latest out of Washington is that President Trump is considering imposing tariffs of up to 100 percent on some European goods. That’s because of the European Union’s continued illegal subsidies to the aerospace company, Airbus. Earlier this year the World Trade Organization agreed with the president and ruled that those subsidies violated world trade rules. The targeted list includes dairy products like yogurt, butter, several types of cheese, olives and olive oil as well as French wines.
World Dairy Expo is changing the awards it hands out every year. Traditionally there has been an award for the Dairy Man and the Dairy Woman of the Year. But show officials now say those awards will be combined into a Dairy Producer of the Year award. The other major recognition — for Industry Person of the Year and International Person of the Year will remain the same.
January is survey month for agriculture. This month, more than 40,000 cattle operations across the country will be asked for information so the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a more accurate count of how many cattle there are around the country. Producers will be asked during the first two weeks of January how many beef and dairy cattle they have, the size of their calf crop, what their death losses were this year and how many head they have on feed. Cattle producers can pick from personal interviews, on line, telephone or mail surveys to give that information.
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