Luke Lindberg - Are Trump's trade deals helping American farmers?

 After years of trade deficits, new export numbers suggest America's agricultural outlook may be improving. Luke Lindberg, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, joins the show to discuss rising exports, the shrinking agricultural trade deficit, and what recent trade agreements could mean for U.S. farmers. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson show. So America's farm trade deficit just got cut nearly in half. Is this the turnaround that American farmers have been waiting for? I thought the perfect person to talk to about that is the Under Secretary of Agriculture for President Trump, and that's Luke Lindbergh. Mr. Undersecretary, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Lars, good to be on with you. Calling in from Spangle, Washington today.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

You're out there visiting, and it sounds like the phone's a little iffy, but that's all right. So you're out there talking to farmers and checking out agriculture in Spangle?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yes, sir. We uh just met with uh uh fine folks at USA Pulses uh talking about all things related to the crop this year, building out export markets, helping reduce that trade deficit and make sure that farmers are uh driving profitability for their family farms.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Are the numbers going in the right direction now? And if so, describe them for my audience if you would.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Absolutely, sir. Yeah, when President Trump took office, American agriculture was facing a historic uh out-of-norm $50 billion trade deficit with the world, meaning we were importing $50 billion more in food than we were exporting to the world. Uh, we have always benefited from having an agricultural trade surplus thanks to the productivity uh and quite frankly, the quality of the products we produce here in the United States. So zero uh trade deals uh for four years under President Biden put us in in the spot where we needed to get the momentum swinging back in our favor, and we've done just that. Uh this government physical year, since October 1st, we've cut the trade deficit by 61% uh in real dollars already on the books, and the forecast is showing at the end of the year we'll have a 42% reduction across the board.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I I one of the things that did trouble me when I first read it, because you've just related to it, and that is how did America, one of the best countries, if not the best country on planet Earth when it comes to knowing how to grow food or raise food if it if it happens to be livestock, how did we go from being a net food exporter to the point where we had to tell farmers, don't farm that land, we'll pay you not to do it, uh, to a country that for a time was a net food importer. That sounds like a third-world country, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Well, when it comes to trade, what happens is if you're not on the offense, then you're definitely losing. Uh and President Trump has been very clear, he is farmer first and wants our farmers to be winning in the global marketplace, and that's the direction we're taking it right now. Um, when you're not signing new agreements, when you're not out there negotiating, what happens is countries build up unfair trade barriers that disadvantage our farmers from selling in their markets. Now, the president, after zero years of uh zero trade agreements and four years under President Biden, has already signed nine trade agreements in just his first 18 months and nine framework agreements. And those framework agreements are the building blocks for what will be the next nine trade agreements. The population we're talking about there, Lars, across the uh world represents more than 50% of the mouths and more than 50% of global GDP. Wow. So we are getting real access to real people around the world who have the resources to buy American, and it's making all the difference in helping us cut that trade deficit and get back to a surplus.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

I'm talking to the USDA's Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, and that's Luke Lindbergh. Let me ask you about a couple of things that are troubling. Actually, I'm tempted to do this first. Can we make some of the trade deals so that nobody gets to import lettuce unless their farm workers actually use the use the sink and the and the soap after they've picked the crops out of the field? Because that seems to have been a problem recently.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Well, we certainly have the safest food supply in the in the world here in the United States of America. And actually, one of the trade tools that we've leveraged to help get access for our farmers and ranchers around the world is getting markets to agree that if it's safe to eat in the United States, it's safe to eat in those countries. And so it is a reversal of traditional norms where we try to advocate and negotiate around a maybe a specific crop and a specific problem we have. But we're changing the game and thinking more holistically and saying if the the U.S. food safety system is the gold standard, and in fact, if it's safe to eat here, it should be safe to eat for you as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

See, and that makes sense. We become the gold standard, and everybody around the planet says if you want to raise food and sell it anywhere, you got to do it the way America does it. Let me ask you about fertilizer. I fail to understand. Maybe you can help me understand this. Why it is that Iran makes fertilizer. There are other places that make fertilizer. America has natural gas in gigantic quantities. And as I understand, an awful lot of fertilizer is made using natural gas, and yet we're not a major producer of fertilizer. We're consuming it and buying it from other people. Why is that the case and how do we change that?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Well, certainly we've not seen the fertilizer investment that we would have liked to see in recent decades here in the United States. That's why the Secretary uh has put out a recent plan to rebuild the fertilizer supply chain here in America. We're expediting a couple of very key projects to bring fertilizer production back to the United States. We're working alongside oil and natural gas producers to make sure that uh we are taking advantage of the bountiful resources we have here in America. But really, it's unacceptable because if you believe like I do that food security is national security, our ability to grow crops and to have the inputs that are required to do that, like fertilizer, are critically important. Uh and so President Trump continues to be personally engaged in this. You know, when he uh uh uh when we made new progress in Venezuela on uh our relationship there, we're now importing urea from Venezuela for the first time ever. But the goal is again to reshore that production of fertilizer here, and uh that gives us the long-term food stability we need.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Okay, I want to ask you about one last thing, and this has been one of my favorite hobby horses. I'm talking to the Under Secretary of Agriculture, Luke Lindbergh. Uh people may not know it, but the Forest Service is under USDA. And I've never understood why a country that grows trees like America grows trees is importing 30 or 40 percent of its dimensional lumber. Anything we can do to fix that?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yes, certainly also been a key topic for us under discussion. We we do we have about 10,000 firefighters, I think is a number at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And quite frankly, and again to the Biden administration, their forest management practices were really unacceptable. Uh we we've done a much better job of being uh pro-lumber production. We're actually now doing some better job of exporting and creating new deal opportunities. For example, we negotiated a uh a new sales contract with a major uh energy producer in the United Kingdom to help take advantage of some of the forest uh production that we have here in the United States. So we are seeing a rebound in that. And again, uh one of the critical industries we need to make sure we're fostering because in the long run, the more that we can produce and consume of our own products, the better off and the more secure we'll be.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Absolutely right. Mr. Under Secretary, thanks so much for I appreciate the time. Have fun and spangle. That is Luke Lindbergh. He is the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. We appreciate you coming on the show. Glad to get your calls in a moment at 866-HLARS. Send emails to talk at LawrenceLarsen dot com. And you're listening to the Radio Northwest Network, proudly serving the Pacific Northwest with honestly provocative talk.