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lawmakers want to support legal challenges against China’s extensive violations of copyright and other
World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. But, “everybody in that room said they wanted trade, not
aid” to reimburse farmers for impacts of China’s retaliation, he said.

But, Johnson said, “the ugly part of this administration has been

the insulting, bellicose behavior that frequently comes from the
president to presidents of other countries,” Johnson said, “and I

think that is the reason that Mexico is buying corn from South
America” rather than the U.S., its usual source. At the Agri-

Pulse summit, meanwhile, NFU President Roger Johnson,
explained he agrees with Trump’s view that trade deficits suck
wealth from the U.S. economy and must be reined in. “I agree
with the president that you can’t continue down this road

with a half-trillion dollar trade deficit and not pay
consequences. It’s a 3 percent drag on our GDP,” he said.

Roger Johnson, President NFU Darci Vetter, recently named general manager for public affairs

at Edelman DC and former agricultural trade negotiator for

President Obama, voices similar concerns about the tone of
Trump’s trade policy. “Words do matter. It is false to suggest
that vocabulary and policy can be separated,” she said.

But, like Conner, she also points to the erosion of support for multilateral trade leadership. “I think it is
consequential that we have stopped talking about a global economy and the United States’ leverage …
and the importance of global supply chains.” Instead, she observes, American leaders are now focused
on “bilateral winners and losers ... (and the idea) that if we have a bilateral trade deficit with your
country, then we are losing and that it is not fair.”

As a long-time trade negotiator, she says successful

trade is built better by partners than by warfare
between opponents: “If the underlying vocabulary in
trade with other countries is that … we see each other
as partners, it’s easier to solve problems. If the overall

relationship is in question, it makes it harder to solve
problems,” she said.

Vetter believes, however, that Trump’s biggest Darci Vetter, Edelman DC
threat to U.S. agricultural trade, much more than
his combative tone, is his withdrawal from
completed trade pacts, inconsistency and lack of
follow through.

Some farm commodity export advocates are objecting to the lone ranger trade offensive. When Trump

announced his first list of penal tariffs against China, the U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the

National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) issued a statement encouraging U.S. trade actions
against China’s unfair trade practices when pursued in line with world trade rules. For example, after

shocking people in the U.S. and abroad recently by telling Lighthizer and Kudlow in a meeting with

farm-state Republican lawmakers that he wants to examine options for rejoining the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP), Trump undercut his own order within hours. He tweeted that he “would only join

18 www.Agri-Pulse.com