ST. ALBANS, Vt.— U.S dairy farmers already struggling with low milk prices worry President Donald Trump’s talk of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement could harm trade to Mexico, its biggest export market.
“The income of dairy farmers, whether they’re in Vermont or California, depends heavily on our export to Mexico,” said Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president responsible for domestic and international policy for the federation.
If just 1, 2 or 3 percent of the exports were to come back to the United States, “we would see a significant drop on overall prices,” he said.
Far from the U.S.-Mexican border, trade is on the minds of dairy farmers in Vermont.
“Mexico is our biggest destination for dairy and it’s not only dairy,” said Fairfield farmer Harold Howrigan Jr., of the U.S. trade partnership with Mexico. “It’s corn and soy also that go down there so our huge trading partner and we need that market.”
Howrigan is the board president of the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery. He made comments after meeting with Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch last week.
U.S. dairy trade with Mexico has jumped by 558 percent since NAFTA’s implementation in 1994, according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council.
Trump last week promised “pleasant surprises” from planned renegotiations of NAFTA, an agreement he’s called the worst deal in U.S. history. Trump has said NAFTA puts U.S. workers at a disadvantage.