Perdue on China: ‘Start Buying, Stop Stealing’

When USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue addressed the delegate session of the Illinois Farm Bureau earlier this month, he didn’t mince words on what President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Chinese leader Xi Jinping means to the heartland.

“We want them to start buying our stuff and stop stealing our stuff,” he said. “That’s really what it’s all about.”

Perdue said he was excited about recent trade developments, where Trump agreed not to hike tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods to 25 percent on Jan. 1. And China agreed to purchase a “very substantial” amount of agriculture, energy and industrial goods, including soybeans, beef, oranges, pistachios and red wine.

“In dealing with the Chinese, it’s never over till it’s over,” Perdue said. “As farmers, you know it’s not what you think you’re gonna make; it’s what you take to the elevator after that.”

Perdue repeatedly emphasized that U.S. negotiations regarding China’s way of conducting business were about more than just tariffs, referring to biotechnology and intellectual property transfer “through theft or forced transfer.” He said retaliatory tariffs have been extremely harmful to producers and expects the second launch of the Market Facilitation Program to be out this week.

Regarding news that Trump and Canadian and Mexican leaders signed the USMCA trade agreement the previous week, Perdue noted that in nearly every instance, U.S. farmers’ trade situation was improved. They were not able to secure provisions for fresh fruit and vegetable farmers in the southern U.S. but solidified markets with both countries over the next several years.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted; that’s what negotiations are all about. But by and large, we’re a whole lot better off than we were with the original NAFTA,” Perdue noted, calling on farmers to contact their members of Congress and encourage them to ratify the agreement.

Perdue said he was proud of the agriculture community over the last several months for giving the president the benefit of the doubt on trade negotiations.

“On behalf of the president, I’m going to thank you all in agriculture for having born the brunt of these retaliatory tariffs, and for understanding the long game,” Perdue said. “I think it’s because you’re people of the land and you understand you can’t plant corn in August and harvest in October. You know you’ve got to do things in order.”

Source: Delta Farm Press