National Farmers Union (NFU), an advocacy organisation representing nearly 200,000 farm families, supports the administration’s stated intent to renegotiate NAFTA and fix the systemic issues that disadvantage family farmers and rural communities. NFU believes the nation’s trade deficit and lost sovereignty are a result of a “free trade” agreement framework that began with NAFTA in 1994 and has replicated in US trade deals over the past 25 years.

Rob Larew, NFU Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Communications, issued the following statement in response to the president’s announcement:

“Today’s movement on NAFTA renegotiations is a positive step towards putting in place a trade deal that rewrites the current rules of international trade to put family farmers and ranchers on an even playing field with multinational corporations. While this is an important step, there is still much work to be done on the part of US negotiators to secure balanced trade and renewed sovereignty for American agriculture. Farmers Union urges the administration to work tactfully with our Mexican and Canadian trading partners to institute a new, fair trade NAFTA.”