Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visits Washington Tuesday. Photo by Sam McIntosh.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig spoke to local producers Tuesday at the Washington County Farm Bureau’s annual meeting.
Naig was the featured speaker at the county farm bureau’s 101st annual meeting held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Washington, and spoke on several issues affecting farmers, such as the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China. Naig said that he doesn’t like tariffs, but gives his thoughts on China’s role, “China is not a victim in this trade conflict. For far too long they have been creating barriers to trade, non-tariff barriers to trade that needs to be resolved. I think our policy is to treat China like a developing country and they are hardly a developing country; 1.4 billion people, the second largest economy in the world, a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) that grows at a rate of 6-7% a year, they are not a developing country. They joined the WTO (World Trade Organization), it’s time for them to stand up and act like the country that they are, which means you come to the table and you negotiate and you work things out.”
Naig said he wants trade instead of aid and that the relief package from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will never make farmers whole. He also talked about a round table discussion he had with USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, Governor Kim Reynolds, and other ag industry officials last week, “The other piece that was very much top of mind for folks was we really need to see some progress on renewable fuel, specifically around E-15, and the president as candidate Trump and now as President Trump has multiple times said that he wants to see higher blends of ethanol, E-15 is the start. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has said they can do it, now they maybe say they can’t do it.”
Naig mentioned EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said President Trump is on board with expanding the renewable fuel standard, and Naig said something could happen as early as this week.