Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today met with Robert Lighthizer, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as United States Trade Representative. The Finance Committee, where Grassley is a senior member and former chairman, will handle the nomination. Grassley made the following comment on the meeting.
“The main point I wanted to convey is that regardless of what action the incoming President takes on trade, he and his advisers should consider the effects on agriculture. Iowa is an exporting state, with a tremendous amount of agricultural commodities and other goods shipped to markets around the world. U.S. trading partners are quick to use agriculture as leverage when they want to start a trade dispute with the United States. We’ve weathered false attacks on the safety of U.S. pork and beef, for example. Trading partners must be held to their obligations, and that includes using only sound science as the basis for excluding products over safety arguments. Earlier this month, China increased tariffs on distillers dried grains from ethanol production, an animal feed ingredient. I expect the new administration to work hard to maintain existing markets for Iowa and other farm states’ exports and open new markets as well.”
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