By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said a trade war with China would be harmful to Kansas agriculture and urged President Trump in meetings Thursday to reconsider his position.
Moran met with the president in an agriculture round table Thursday at the White House. He talked about trade issues during a tour of Ellis High School Friday. Moran was in town to tour EHS in advance of speaking at the school’s commencement on May 12.
Trump seemed to soften Thursday on trade, directing his advisers to revisit the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement between 11 Pacific countries. Trump spoke against the trade agreement during has campaign and withdrew the U.S. from the agreement negotiations last year.
Trump has instituted tariffs on Chinese steel, with China retaliating with sanctions on U.S. ag products including pork. China has suggested it may expand those restrictions to soybeans, an important Kansas crop.
Moran emphasized Friday the importance of foreign trade to the Kansas ag economy.
“Trade is important. Exports matter to us. We make a living in Kansas based on what we sell around the world. It is particularly true in agriculture, and with the difficult circumstance of commodity prices, lack of rain, the drought that we are in, we need more markets not less. I have been very vocal with my colleagues in the Senate and to the administration about the importance of maintaining a trade agreement called NAFTA and not getting in a tariff war with other countries.”
Moran said pulling out of the TPP negotiations was a mistake. Moran also said the U.S. needs to deal with China’s misdeeds against the U.S. economy, but a trade war is not the way to accomplish that.
“I think there is a need to deal with China,” Moran said. “They do not play by the rules. They steal our secrets. They take our technology. They attack us in cyber security ways. In my view, those things need to be much more targeted than just tariffs.”
The U.S. can isolate China if it engages with other countries, and Moran said TPP is a perfect example of this.
Moran told the president farmers need reassurance.
“There is a lot of uncertainty out there generally in agriculture, but you add not knowing if world markets are going to be available. … Here is a way, Mr. President, that you can reassure farmers that markets are going to be available to them even as we engage with China,” Moran said.
The U.S. needs to continue to work with Canada and Mexico through NAFTA and the European Union, he said.
Moran said Trump seemed receptive to opening up a dialogue on TPP. However, Moran added, “We need to make sure the administration pursues what they indicated yesterday.”
Some Kansans may prefer to not engage globally, Moran said.
“I respond to that by saying, ‘What 48 percent of Kansas do you not want to plant in wheat?'” Moran said. “We can produce more than Americans can consume, and the only way we can continue to be farming communities like Ellis and the surrounding area is when we have access to world markets. We need more markets not less.”
The president said at the roundtable Thursday if farmers are injured in a trade war, the federal government would find a program to compensate them for their loses.
“It was always communicated to the President, ‘Mr. President our farmers don’t want another check from the government. They want to earn their livings in the markets,'” Moran said. “My point would be don’t create a problem through lack of trade and try to figure out how to spend money to solve the problem. Just don’t create the problem in the first place.”
Moran also commented briefly on the House Farm Bill that was released Thursday. He said he continues to have concerns about maintaining crop insurance and getting payments to farmers in a timely manner, saying some farmers have waited as a long as a year for federal payments.
The earliest the Senate is likely to pass its version of the Farm Bill is May. The current Farm Bill expires in September.
Moran was invited to speak at graduation by senior Haley Reiter. Reiter and Abby Burton, fellow senior, with the EHS principal Corey Burton and Ellis superintendent Bob Young led Moran on school tour.
Moran talked to teachers and the students about the importance of technical education in Kansas’ ag economy. Moran toured the woodshop and machine shop as well as visited the tech room where students had used a 3-D printer to construct remote-controlled cars.
Ellis also offers college-credit courses through an agreement with NCKTech, and the students discussed the use of technology to take online courses, including Intro to Business and Spanish.