Trade has been a hot topic for President-Elect Donald Trump, including the issues with the North American Free Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Critics of the TPP argue it lets currency-manipulating countries kill U.S. jobs, allows foreign countries to bypass U.S. law and it could create new monopoly rights for pharmaceutical companies. There's one industry though, that sees some merits in both the TPP and NAFTA -- agriculture.
Ted Guetterman is a fourth generation farmer in Bucyrus, Mo. His great-grandfather started farming back in the 1920s and the tradition has continued ever since.
He tells 41 Action News, "Everybody you talk to in the agriculture industry seems to think the TPP will be good for agriculture."
Ultimately, he wants to be competitive in the world market.
Guetterman said, "We have very good export numbers. China is buying a lot of U.S. soybeans right now."
He says if that stopped, the effect would devastate farmers. He also believes NAFTA helped open up trade.
"Mexico is a good customer of ours. They buy a lot of corn from us so we need to continue good relations with them as well and without NAFTA I don't think we would have that," he said.
It hasn't been all good. Those against NAFTA argue it allowed companies to move jobs to Mexico, U.S. jobs were lost and wages went down as a result.
Guetterman says it's a complex issue, but in terms of the president-elect he added, "I know he says that NAFTA has been bad for this country and I think it has been somewhat good for agriculture. Maybe when he sees both sides of it, he's a businessman, hopefully he'll make some good decisions and we'll continue to have good trade."
Dia Wall can be reached at dia.wall@kshb.com.
