The first few days of President Donald Trump's administration have left the agriculture industry in Arkansas anxious about the future of trade policy and access to scientific agricultural research data.
Trump moved Monday to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a 12-nation pact that could have boosted shipments to Asian countries. The United States shipped $61.7 billion worth of agricultural goods to the 11 partnership countries in 2015, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Former President Barack Obama's administration spent years negotiating the Pacific Rim pact but never sent the accord to Congress for ratification, making Trump's actions Monday largely symbolic.
The withdrawal has left agriculture industry groups, who wanted to ship their products abroad, disappointed.
"The TPP held great promise for us, and has been a key priority for several years now," said Ron Moore, president of the American Soybean Association in an email. "We're very disappointed to see the withdrawal."
Soybeans, a popular crop in Arkansas' Mississippi Delta, have been one of the only crops to prosper recently in an otherwise sluggish agricultural market, partially because of the strength in price overseas for the plant's oilseed. The USDA expects 2016-2017 soy exports to account for nearly half of the harvested U.S. crop, reaching a record 2.05 billion bushels.
In Arkansas, livestock producers would have been the biggest winners of the trade partnership, said Randy Veach, president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau. He said beef, especially, would have benefited from the Trans-Pacific Partnership by taking large tariffs off the product and increased trade.
"We are disappointed in that," Veach said. "We thought the new president would go in and make changes, but we didn't really expect him to completely withdraw."
Rice is one of the few agricultural products that wouldn't have benefited from the deal because of increased competition from rice growing areas in Asian countries, said Andrew Grobmyer, executive vice president of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas. He said bilateral agreements, deals between two countries instead of a group like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, still could help open up agricultural markets.
"I hope that they can quickly get to work on finding market opportunities," he said. "I guess we are kind of waiting, anxious to see how things begin to take shape with this new administration."
An internal memo circulated Monday that bans the research arm of the USDA, the Agricultural Research Service, along with other federal departments, from sharing any public-facing document also has some in the Arkansas agriculture community off balance.
The Agricultural Research Service performs research on many issues facing agriculture, including climate change.
"Starting immediately and until further notice, the ARS will not release any public facing documents. This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds and social media content," according to the internal memo.
Arkansas Agriculture Department spokesman Adriane Barnes said it's unclear how or if this policy will affect the statewide department. And for the University of Arkansas Agriculture Extension Service, it's still business as usual, according to spokesman Mary Hightower.
Grobmyer said farmers have become dependent and accustomed to easy access to the research.
"Hopefully we are all aiming for the same goal of supporting the U.S. agriculture and industry," Grobmyer said. "We are trying to be understanding and patient."
Business on 01/25/2017