President Donald Trump's remarks about Mexico might hurt American farmers, as CNN Money reported a Mexican senator plans to introduce a bill that would make Brazil and Argentina the country's corn supplier.
Senator Armando Rios Piter, the head of a congressional committee on foreign relations, told CNN Sunday he is "going to send a bill for the corn that we are buying in the Midwest and . . . change to Brazil or Argentina," saying it is a "good way to tell them that this hostile relationship has consequences, hope that it changes."
"If we do indeed see a trade war where Mexico starts buying from Brazil . . . we're going to see it affect the corn market and ripple out to the rest of the ag economy," Darin Newsom, a senior analyst for agricultural management firm DTN, told CNN.
The United States is the largest corn provider in the world, sending $2.4 billion in corn to Mexico in 2015 alone, a large improvement over the $391 million sent to Mexico in 1995 just after the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump said earlier this month he wants to "speed" talks for a new North American trade deal, calling NAFTA "a catastrophe for our country; it's been a catastrophe for our workers and our jobs and our companies," in an interview with CNN Money.
"I don't care if it's a renovation of NAFTA, or a brand new NAFTA, but we do have to make it fair, and it's very unfair for the American worker," he added.
Trump has threatened to withdraw from the agreement if Canada and Mexico do not give "American workers a fair deal," according to a statement on WhiteHouse.gov.
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