M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 7 8 POTATO GROWER Potato Growers Provide NAFTA Enhancements To Administration The National Potato Council (NPC) sent a letter to President Trump that provided specific recommendations on how the Administration can improve the terms of trade for pota- to exports under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a treaty entered into by the United States, Canada and Mexico that went into effect on January 1, 1994. Improving upon the terms of NAFTA can benefit rural America and our nation’s economy, which were topics that were featured during the election. In the letter, NPC emphasized that the potato industry is strongly sup- portive of building on the successes seen during the era of NAFTA. Since 1994, Canada and Mexico have become vital markets for exporting U.S. potatoes. Canada and Mexico respectively are current- ly the second and third largest mar- kets for U.S. potato products. If access to U.S. fresh and processed potatoes in Mexico and Canada were to expand even more, the U.S. would experience increased job growth on farms, in processing plants and in the transportation industry. Conversely, an outright withdrawal from NAFTA would mean the loss of more than $500 million in direct potato exports to Mexico and Canada and substan- tially greater indirect losses. It is clear the value that NAFTA has pro- vided, and NPC believes building upon it is possible. One key improvement for NAFTA that NPC supports is an enhanced Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) chapter to reduce the use of unsci- entific and inconsistent pest and disease issues as non-tariff barriers. Such an improvement would elimi- nate burdens that have blocked fresh U.S. potato exports to Mexico for over a decade. The SPS allows countries to set their own standards but it also says regulations must be NPC Mes sage by John Keeling, NPC Executive Vice President and CEO