U.S. trade officials inked a deal - the USMCA - with Canadian trade officials that would reprise the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since Mexico signed a NAFTA pact with U.S. trade negotiators in August, that re-forms the trio that forged NAFTA in 1994, says a report at AgWeek.
The Trump administration has aimed U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods as retaliation, and many trade experts have warned that Trump's aggressive style might undo many trade arrangements that will end up hurting the American economy.
Foreign trade is ever more important for farmers. South Dakota's farmers are following the national trend to planting and harvesting more corn and soybeans nearly every year in a long term trend.
On Monday, prices to farmers at grain elevators in central South Dakota for corn, at about $3.90 a bushel, are below typical break-even levels. Elevators aren't even offering a cash bid for soybeans because prices have been so low.
"Beans are going into storage and we'll see a lot of corn piled on the ground," Scott VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, told AgWeek.
