talks about associational life in america. an issue i have been looking into on the joint economic committee and the struggles of people not only in appalachia but throughout the country. >> booktv wants to know what you are reading. send us your summer reading list via twitter@booktv or instagram@book a tv or post it to our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. booktv on c-span2, television for serious readers. now president of farm and ranch associations in the us, canada and mexico speak about their support for the north atlantic free trade agreement, representatives of the three countries have become a new round of talks to update the pact by 2018. this event was held at the national press club.

[inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon. i am will roger, director of policy communications at the american farm bureau federation. today negotiators from three member states of nafta will begin renegotiating a treaty that is more than 20 years old. much is at stake particularly for agriculture. we have with us the three heads of the largest farm organizations in canada, mexico and the united states. the president of the american farm bureau federation, ron bonnett, president of the canadian federation of agriculture. and bosco vega of the conseco national, mexico. they will give their views of what should happen with modernization of nafta. no matter what you have heard

there is a great deal our 3 nations have in common and can agree upon. they will give their opening remarks. after that we have assigning and a letter as well as secretary ricardo, chief negotiators for the treaty. after that we open the floor to questions. if you have a question please wait for the microphone so people on the phone and hear the question you are asking. mister devol, the floor is yours. >> thank you for attending, this is an important day to american agriculture, canadian agriculture and mexican agriculture. we come today to show our unity and i want to thank mister bonnett and mister vega for being with us today and helping joining us in talking about

modernization of nafta trade treaty. i want you gentlemen and everyone in the room today to know that american farmers and ranchers value our trade relationships with our two closest neighbors, canada and mexico are more than close. they are number one and number 3 customers of the united states, agricultural products, exports and the top two suppliers of us agricultural imports. clearly our trade relations are important to all of us on stage here. we have a vital interest in helping our neighbors make improvements, negotiators make improvements but also do no harm to the gains we have gained in nafta. we are committed to preserving and expanding on gains, agriculture has achieved and

ensure a modernized, nafta continues to be a success story for north america farmers and ranchers. we all want timely enforcement of trade agreements, prompt resolution to disputes that might arise in the new modernization. usda projects us agricultural exports will total $137 billion this year, forecast of agricultural imports is 114.5 million giving us a trade surplus in agricultural products and i says a surplus, $22.5 billion. for all the criticisms of our trade deals, we in agriculture want our negotiators to know the trade deals and open markets are largely beneficial to american farmers and ranchers and other communities we live in and do business in, raise our families.

there will be opportunities during negotiations to talk about issues concerning us with commodities. it is important to enter these talks with cool heads and focus on the common goals we have, three groups that are here today agree that trade helps all of our citizens and farmers and ranchers in our two countries and we look forward to a better agreement for the future that is modernized for modern agriculture, thank you. >> next we have ron bonnett, president of the canadian federation of agriculture.

>> thank you. thank you to the american farm bureau for hospitality, we had the opportunity to have lunch before this press conference and it gave us an opportunity to exchange views on where things are going. between mister devol, we realize there is a lot of common ground we can build on. we heard the ministers and secretaries make opening remarks on the renegotiation of nafta. it is interesting in the opening comments we heard the word agriculture a number of times. with our leadership in all three countries recognizing agriculture is important, we the farm leaders of all three countries must insist the voices of farmers and ranchers must be heard as these negotiations proceed. i thank press for coming out, this is an issue of great

importance to the economies of all three countries. cfa, american farm bureau, cna in mexico decided several weeks ago that it would be appropriate for us to try to find that common grounds that we had when we move forward and we have prepared a joint statement and subsequent letter to our negotiators based on the principle of do no harm. for agriculture, nafta has been good. if we look at the changes since 1994, trade between our three countries has grown exponentially. we must build on this success. with canada, the us, we have $56 billion in reciprocal trade and the us has a surplus at this time. with mexico and canada we have $3.2 billion in trade and mexico has a slight surplus.

canada is the top export market for 29 us states. as farm leaders we have outlined common ground for forward. there are five areas we agreed on. one is a focus on increased and improved regulatory alignment. the secondary is looking at approving the flow of goods at border crossings. the third is alignment of science-based sanitary measures and with that fancy term that is human animal and plant health issues. the elimination of non-science-based technical barriers to trade is another area we need to concentrate on. adapting the agreement to technology advanceds that have been made since 1994. in 1994, the internet, digital economies, those types of things. in closing i would like to echo

what was said this morning. we are neighbors, partners and friends, we have a relationship based on trust and understanding. agriculture has been a success. and remember, do no harm. thank you. >> finally, bosco vega. >> this to devol, american farm bureau -- >> translator: members of the press and members of cna. we have the privilege of our

secretaries of agriculture, sunny purdue from the united states, mclaren from canada, sending very good signals working together as a team. first of all at the georgia meeting where the three of them were present. and in mexico, where mister perdue -- they were together. today is a great example of construction. and the primary production.

in cordiality and respect. after they were expressed to ourselves, the presidents of agriculture sector. i want to remember the national culture of agriculture represents 80% of mexico. and 75%. as well as medium growers. recognizing the united states and canada as great partners, complementary. and in north america. i am third generation of growers and always have american or

canadian commercial partners. we understand primary production is vital for the economy of the country's. we are at the commercial block, more successful of the work and people are more competitive. making more strongly, tides in north america. we can go out to the markets in asia, south america and europe. the national council of agriculture is in favor of commercial violence more competitive.

and the national council of agriculture looking always to maintain competitive markets. we are committing to looking for better marketing in three countries. the fight is practical. should be treated by profit. and in specialities.

the modernization of nafta -- should be make as strong as the trade in the union. and contribute to the partners. i celebrate at the first end of private sectors. we are together taking care of main concerns of the sector. we are very clear from the point of view of mexico and our

government. that we are not agreed to the change coin for any other economic issue. very thankful for all of you being here especially with your tight schedules. and you can count on mexico and the national council of agriculture. thank you very much. >> thank you, gentlemen. we have a sermon, signing a letter to mister freeland, the honorable robert lightheiser of the united states. would you like to sign?

[applause] >> now we get this right. >> thank you, gentlemen. >> thank you. thanks to the efforts of staff. very good. >> very good, thank you, sir. so with that we can open up the floor to questions. please wait for the mic so people on the phone can hear you. microphone. there you are. go ahead. >> just to start off, i would like to get your reaction to bob

lightheiser's opening statement in which he said although nafta benefited us farmers and border communities that is fundamentally failed many americans and would have to have major improvement that tweaking and updating a few chapters would not be acceptable. what concerns does that raise in terms of the agriculture community and possible trade offs to get these changes? >> of course it concerns us that we would have that mentioned upfront, but our stand is we do no harm. this has been a good trade for north american agriculture from mexico to canada and we want to make sure we have that heard loud and clear, we don't want to harm gains we have had. he is my president and president of all the farmers and ranchers across the country who played a major role in getting him elected and he promised not only

to make trade treaties more fair for american people but for all american people and i don't see him doing harm to this treaty that has been good for agriculture. >> on the statement, there might be some concern, positive news for agriculture in the fact that it was singled out that agriculture was a shining example of how the success could work and i think back to mister duval's statement of do no harm, we have to ensure that that message is there loud and clear and in part that is why the three of us decided very quickly that we needed to make a statement to the negotiators that we have something that works, don't do something in negotiations that will undermine that. that will undermine not only farmers and ranchers but all the jobs related to farmers and

ranching it all three countries. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i have an opportunity to be in the press conference in the morning. i was very glad to hear several times, that means the importance we have with some products like corn. recognizing the importance of the sector for the united states. and i think that is a very good signal from the beginning. for the coming organization of

our countries. >> please identify the organization. >> mention was made of improving regulation on the basis of science and abandoning other regulations, barriers to trade that are not technical. would you elaborate on what you mean by that? i get the impression from the american side that you all would be better off if trump had never raised this issue in the first place. would you tell me about that? i will pass the microphone to my colleague who outranks me as a member of the press club. >> quick question.

i was recently in florida talking to growers about their concerns. they have a different perspective than a lot of american agriculture on nafta. i direct this question to mister duval about the concerns florida growers have with mexican shipments with food inspections, labor rates, wages in mexico, food safety standards. for mister duval i wonder if there's anything you can do to address those concerns without setting bad precedent for us farmers in other areas. and i wonder what areas you see as under discussion that would create and address some of the concerns of florida growers, that is eight questions, good luck. >> i will speak to the first gentleman. >> the first gentleman talked about science-based technical barriers.

that could be a number of things. harmonizing regulations to approval of pesticides and herbicides, making sure the scientific process is the same for approval so we don't have to go through a separate series of hoops on the approval of all types of processes. talk about technical barriers, one of the things we discussed at lunch was the idea of inspection services. if there is an inspection approved in one country and accepted by the other three, one inspection should suffice. it should not have to be inspected every time it moves across the border. all of those types of things will streamline costs for producers and streamline costs for the consumers of those products. that goes back to the theory of building on what has been working and trying to streamline a lot of the processes on

regulations and technical barriers so we get closer to harmonization across all three countries. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: one of her trade with clear rules of commerce. topic in a transparent way. based on science. we are agreed that our countries maintain the 90 chapter in controversial solution. the labor topics for each

country should be addressing their own themes. mexico has an agreement. working very hard in this process. >> do you have a question? >> when it comes to the farmers in florida, northeastern dairy farmers, midwest, some areas, of course we have some concerns. what did i do to change that? our organization, all these organizations have good communications with our government. my communication is through the secretary's office and we will keep him informed as to where we

think there are issues, there might be some issues we try to solve. it comes down to deciding, we are really a region of these three countries and for us to bind together a strong region, important to show the rest of the world it will be important in future negotiations and other trade treaties. to set our feelings aside and tell each other we have problems lose we had a problem in florida, we have a problem in the northeast. we have a problem in certain areas. let's have some rules around this treaty that will have swift decisions on how we solve these problems because this is money to our farmers which we can't afford them to be in limbo in this problem with trade treaties. we have to bind together as a region, discuss what our problems are with each other and find solutions and do it

quickly. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: going into an analogy state by state, let me say there will be their own particular things. in the global vision of trade between mexico, united states and canada, mexico has winners and also losers. the corn and beans growers in mexico, pork, during serio mexico standing solid, some myths, and we are receiving very

important volume of meat and grains. >> i want to add you mention chapter 19 dispute resolution. with any trading agreement it is almost mandatory there be a mechanism in place to deal with disputes when they arise. having a trade agreement that doesn't have some type of format for how you resolve this, creating a trade agreement that doesn't have any importance so from our perspective and the canadian government perspective this resolution is critical is the agreement goes forward. >> next question. >> on one of your lists you talk about improved flow at border crossings, can you address

border security and your concerns about that? >> do you want me to stir it up? i can start from the canadian perspective. i live very close to the us border. one of the issues we find is hold ups particularly with perishable products, delay of several hours, very valuable cargo toward nothing, finding ways of getting a preapproved clearance, using all the technologies available so when that -- preapproved for those who go through recognizing in the world we are living in, we have to have security clearance, in the united states the other day i saw people going through the nexus line, and a similar

type of approach, across the border as we are doing at border entry. >> something i am not an expert in in this organization. i leave it up to the exports to handle that but we can speak to the issue you just brought up. in very good quality, that is definitely how quickly and swiftly it can get through the borders. >> translator: we have the commitment of national security. breaking through the field,

audience certification, in the process. the supervision at the border. word association and right to it. with the security to contribute to the safety. >> we have some questions. and organization please. >> the question from the line of calls. >> other gentlemen concerns

about trump administration's fixation, with trade deficit and what might heard ag interests that benefited nafta. >> we carry that concern and the first question we answered was close. we have a concern but our approach is do no harm on what you gained in this trade treaty. we went from $8 billion worth of trade and $38 billion of trade during the lifetime of nafta. we want to do no harm to that and make it even better for all three countries agriculturewise. we understand the manufacturing problems, we believe that up to experts to have that conversation and continue to impress on them that we do not want them to use us as a trading

tool. . >> the only thing i would add is the fact agriculture trade has more balance for what manufacturing trade is and we don't want to see agriculture sacrificed and did a great job taking advantage of opportunities so why should we be penalized for that? [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: in mexico we know the obsession about the deficit. to say mexico representing 8% of the best. and we assumed we can say 70%.

and north american companies. to the united states. and made in mexico, in the region. coming from other parties has integration of 8% to 12%. in the sector, we have a lot of canadian and united states companies investing in mexico, they are exporting from mexico to their own countries and change value. in the case of the exporter. in the destination country,

canada or united states. an important commercial partner or investment, investor or shareholder. >> thank you. >> could we hold on for a question from the floor, operator? go ahead, catherine. >> the us and mexico said they want to finish negotiations if possible because of upcoming elections in both countries. if you could comment on if that is a realistic timeline and if you could comment on longer negotiations that are drawn out impacting agricultural markets. >> discussed this at lunch.

[speaking in native tongue] >> translator: mexico is two plans. the first one is to conclude the renegotiation or modernization of the agreement as soon as possible. affecting the dissent of the free trade agreement. the idea will be we will be finished at the end of january. but it is not -- we will wait until the timing and essence the treatment will come. understanding that nafta will

continue operating, we will wait. we say in aviation, in the case -- a very improbable case that the united states decides to leave nafta. to work on the omc rules. wto. >> just one comment. canada doesn't have any election so i am caught in the middle here but one of the things, number one, it is going to be up to negotiators to determine what the timeframe is going to be when these are finalized, but

our role is to ensure the concerns of farmers and ranchers are heard as we go through the negotiation but one comment i would make is making sure negotiators go through this, any discussion that takes place in the public builds on confidence of a trading relationship and not undermining that confidence because every day farmers and ranchers are shipping product, trading with each other and anything that undermines that could hurt the economy and the long-term plan of how we move ahead. >> farm economy is not very good in america right now and uncertainty makes everyone on farmland very uncomfortable. it is our desire and wish that we make sure this modernization of this trade treaty happens

quickly and let's get our discussions behind us so we can bring some certainty to the markets for farmers and have them able to plant the next crop next year, be prepared for that. like i said earlier, time is money to farmers, for the farmers or the markets, this will play a major role in those areas as we move forward, get it done and get it done fast and we are looking for successful modernization. >> another question from those on the phone line. >> next question from cromwell ag network, please proceed with your question. >> thanks for taking our calls

today, my question would be this. the commonality discovered under the transpacific partnership before the us withdrew, should that be the baseline for the beginning of negotiations? or is that the epitome we might expect? [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: we have big advances in the tpp in modernization of nafta. we know that 11 countries left. propose to continue with the agreement. very important that tpp can

coordinate the nafta with canada and the united states. >> you mentioned tpp being a phase, i would not call it a phase but one thing about tpp, outlines the scope of a modern trade agreement. the idea of using it for a basis, market dynamics changed with the united states not being part of tpp. it will be difficult to accept that as a base going forward. talking about the scope and some of the issues we are discussing might be something to look at but others and that i can't say we knew. >> that is a lot of areas that we are interested and excited about so hopefully there will be bits and pieces we could use.

thinking that treaty could be used as a base, that -- don't know what would happen but we hope they do pick up modernization of that treaty and modernization of nafta. >> questions from the floor? yes, sir? >> full up question on tpp. so the president withdrew from tpp, us farmers are missing out on the benefits you are supposed to get. what is your stance on possible japan/us/58 how serious is the trump administration thinking about that? >> i haven't spoken to donald

trump but i think hearing him talk about future trade treaties with other countries, very possible, we are hoping other countries are interested in having those conversations. i would hope being open to that discussion of bilateral treaty between the country and the us. >> do we have anyone still on the phone who wants to ask a question? >> we do have a question from the line of ellen ferguson from cq rollcall, please proceed with your question. >> thank you for having the conference. i want to ask about supply management, that has been a big concern of us dairy farmers. it seems to be an area that

canada has not -- has said it will defend. do you see any -- is their potential canada might accept and changes to supply management? >> our government has been very clear stating that they are going to defend supply management and we stand behind that. one of the things the three of us as leaders, talking about putting together a joint statement to concentrate on those areas where we have common interest and we could all identify areas where each country has issues they could bring forward. if we spend our time talking about that, as i mentioned the three countries operate in close relationship, we will have differences and i don't think it is bad to have differences and healthy discussion. ..

>> american agriculture is not seeking renegotiation of a modernization of this trade treaty, but once the election started and the rhetoric started around it, and we have a new president that has that desire, then of course we look for opportunities and a challenge for us. would we be better off? we won't know until this trade treaty has been negotiated.

hopefully, mr. trump lives up to his words and that at the end of this negotiation, that farmers and ranchers across north america and all three of our country's will be even better off than what we are today. wwe're going to go into this vey optimistic, and say that if he accomplishes what he wants to do in this trade treaty that will have certainly in the markets and certainty in where they will be exporting to, and certainly what they will be planting and producing next year. i think we have the opportunity to make something that's a good, then good for us in the past and make it better. [inaudible] >> if you start swapping off the gains we have gained in american agriculture for some other business sector, could be harmful to american agriculture. or if we put pressure into

another country that may make a decision and take their business elsewhere. could do harm to our farmers. let's don't try to fix what's not broken, and the agricultural piece of nafta is not totally broken, but it could take some attention in certain areas. >> i think when the discussion opened on reopening nafta, i think ourselves in the canadian government recognized the agreement has been a place since 94 so there's been a lot of stuff that's changed. i think that's why when the three of our organizations got together started identifying areas where we could make improvements, we were very specific about the types of things that would improve trade flows, harmonize the regulations, all those inspection services. those types of things likely should be updated. when you go that long, likely needs a look at, but our advice has been very much focused on those five recommendations. if those are achieved and will

likely make things better for farmers in all three countries. [speaking spanish] >> translator: when president donald takes position on januar3 organizations of the farm bureau. to initiate pro, to maintain the nafta, because from 1994 to this date, the commerce between the countries will have been increased .3 times. and that process has been the same process in mexico and

canada. we are the most competitive area and without agreement, we are going to make more stronger asia, especially china. and we will decrease the come -- competitiveness in north america. >> for the final question, operator, is anyone left on the phone? anyone from the floor? with that thank you all for coming. it's been a pleasure. as always you have my contact information, let us know if we can do anything to help. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible