Homegrown trade negotiator discusses what’s at stake in trade war

Trade is an abstract thought for many of us, but for farmers, the impact is very real.

“It’s just kind OF scary not knowing where we’re going to be this fall,” Craig Grams of Upland said, about the cloudy forecast in agriculture.

As he jokes with guys he ran into a trade show, Grams doesn’t look scared but on the ground he farms with his brother Joel, he’s hesitant to bring the next generation back.

“You always worry about your kids, do you want to punish them with this,” he said.

The ongoing trade war casts a shadow over farming.

“Uncertainty is costly, particularly if you’re a farmer and you have to make decisions months in advance about what you’re going to plant,” said Darci Vetter, Vice Chair at Edelman, a global communications marketing firm.

She spent years as one of the lead negotiators for the Obama administration, and now watches as Pres. Trump starts over on trade.

“Each year we wait to get these deals done is a year that US products are more expensive going into those markets than the products coming from our competitors,” she said.

Speaking to the Aurora Cooperative ACE Summit, just minutes from her dad’s farm in Hamilton County, Vetter gave President Trump credit for singling out China’s unfair practices, but questions the timing of tariffs.

She said, “One of the statements this administration has made about getting tough on China is the time was right to do it, because the economy was doing well and had a cushion there to get tough. Well, the ag economy hasn’t had a cushion.”

Craig Grams was optimistic he’d make money on soybeans last year, then China retaliated with tariffs of its own.

Still, he stands with President Trump.

“I understand what he’s doing, I agree with what he’s doing, it’s just kind of painful now and who knows it might be better than it ever has been when it’s completed,” Grams said.

Vetter sees some promise the current administration is negotiating with Japan and others, but she says the deal will be no better than the TPP she was negotiating which would have opened doors in Japan and several other countries.

“What are we going to do to replace that and go on the offense again and get new markets for US farmers,” she said.

Vetter agrees with the Trump administration that China is engaging in unfair trade practices however she’d prefer the US work with a coalition of our allies instead of going forward with tariffs.