Remarks by President Trump at the 91st Annual Future Farmers of America Convention and Expo | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And we will work with the globe; we want to work with the globe. But we have to remember, this is about the United States of America first. We have to take care - and you know what? They have to take care of their countries first, too. It's not like any other way. And I say it: They take care of themselves, we take care of - and I'll pit us against any country in the world. And then, when everything is perfect, we help people. We have to help people - and that's good. But we have to take care of the good ole USA and our farmers. (Applause.)

    In the two years leading up to the election, agriculture products - and please remember this - our exports dropped by nearly $23 billion. Think of that. Agriculture exports. This is before I took office, before the election - dropped by $23 billion. Nobody wants to say that, but I say it. Now they're up by more than $14 billion, and that's before these great trade deals kick in.

    Before the election, American farmers saw their net income plummet by one-third. Now we have increased net farm incomes - and this is during negotiations of these tough deals - by $4 billion. Think of that. (Applause.) Nobody wants to say that. The farmers say it, but nobody wants to say that.

    And we're fighting very hard for a terrific farm bill that includes work requirements for food stamps. We want to do something with work requirements. (Applause.) We want to have work requirements. And don't worry about the farm bill. The farm bill we can sign. I could have signed it three months ago. But we're trying to make a good bill. Is it okay if I take a little longer? Because I have these people. (Applause.) These people. Doesn't matter. Remember, they were saying, "Oh, you have to add Canada; you have to make the deal." Very hard.

    We're negotiating with Canada. We're negotiating with Mexico. And I have politicians saying, "You must add this. You must make the deal." And I keep telling them, I don't care if I make a deal or not - I'm telling this to the two countries. I couldn't care less if I make the deal. And then I got politicians, "He must make the deal with Mexico. He must make the deal with Canada." And I'm telling them, I couldn't care less if I make the deal.

    These guys absolutely make it tough, but it doesn't matter, because we made a wonderful deal. And hopefully it's going to be great for Mexico, and hopefully it's going to be great for Canada. But I know one thing: It's great for us. (Applause.) And we're not going to lose. We're not going to lose our companies anymore going to other countries, because there's a big disincentive.

    You know, when we had NAFTA, we lost millions and millions of jobs. Thousands and thousands of companies moved to Mexico, and Canada, to a lesser extent. But they moved to Mexico - car companies, other companies. Millions and millions of jobs. Not going to happen anymore, because now you have a big disincentive, whereas before you had this ridiculous incentive to move. They're not moving anymore. They're not moving. That was very important to me in these deals.

    We recently announced that we are replacing NAFTA with that brand new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement that will increase exports for corn farmers in Indiana, wheat farmers in Kansas, dairy farmers in Wisconsin, poultry farmers in Georgia, and farmers and producers all across the country. All across. Going to be able to export your product now to places you never even thought about.


    As part of this tremendous victory for American farmers, Canada agreed to remove their massive trade barriers to the American dairy industry. You saw that. (Applause.) And we love Canada. I love Canada. I love the people. I love Canada. But they were charging us 275-percent tariff, which basically is saying "don't sell your product to Canada," right? Two-hundred - I don't mean like 2 percent. They were charging 275-percent tariff to our dairy farmers. Can't do that. Can't do that.

    Canada also agreed to give fair treatment to our wheat farmers, and they will now grade American wheat just like they grade their own wheat. Now, you people know what that means. I don't know what the hell it means, but I heard it was a big concession. I have no idea. (Applause.) I have no idea what that means. But everybody is saying, "Sir, could you get the wheat graded the same way they grade their wheat?" And I said, "All right, whatever the hell it means, we got it, okay?" That was supposed to be a big deal. That's why you have to know your business. You have to be in a business. But I have great people. I have great negotiating people. And I work with Sonny and a lot of great farmers, and they know. That's what we have to do - you have to know who to use.

    We are pursuing fair trade all around the world. We opened Argentina to American pork exports for the first time in 25 years. (Applause.) We opened India and Morocco; they both opened their markets to our poultry exports. I mean, getting India - that's a big country; 1.5 billion people - that sounds like a good market, right? U.S. beef has been shipped to Brazil for the first time ever. (Applause.)

    And I opened China to our beef a year ago. I haven't checked recently how we're doing there because we are in the middle of a pretty nasty dispute that we will win. We will win. No, we're going to win it. (Applause.) But China was taking our beef. First time since the year 2000, when they ended it. But I went to President Xi, and he agreed to do it. And it was great. And it will all work out between China and the United States.

    It's - you know, they've doing very well against us for 25, 30 years. They've been doing beyond well - taking out $500 billion a year out of the United States. Would you say that's a lot? That's a lot of corn. That's a lot of wheat. That's a lot of soybeans. Can't do that. I said, you can't do that. So we're in a trade dispute. I want to use that word because it's a nice, soft word. But we're going to win. You know why? Because we always win. (Applause.) We always win. We're American - we always win. Although, I must say, with your past leaders, you did not always win. You never won. How we got put in this position in the first place is ridiculous.

    Japan re-opened its market to U.S. exports of meat from sheep and goat for the first time in over 14 years. Anybody in that business? (Applause.) First time in 14 years. Japan. Don't forget, Japan sends us millions of cars. So now we send them some goat, right? So far, they're winning. We're sending them a goat. They're sending us millions of cars. But they're great people, and they have a great leader - Prime Minister Abe - and he understands. He understands. We're opening up Japan. We have to. Or we don't take their cars. It's very simple. I mean, it's not like, "Oh, gee, this is a tough one." Or we compromise and we put a 20-percent tariff on their cars, which I actually like better. But we have the cards. We have all the cards.

    Don't forget, we're the piggybank that everybody wants to steal from. Everybody. We have all the cards, but nobody has ever chosen to use those cards. Honestly, nobody has ever known that we had the cards. They never got it. But we get it now.

    And we've taken the first steps toward historic negotiations to permanently open markets for American farmers in Japan and the European Union - which has barriers up to American farms. The European Union sends us Mercedes Benzs, BMWs, by the millions. They won't take a piece of corn. They won't take wheat. They don't want our product. But we take their product. Somehow that's not going to last. Do you agree? (Applause.)


    The European Union has been very restrictive. They don't take a lot - not only farm products; medical products. So many products they don't take. And yet, we take theirs. And when they do take our product, they charge us massive tax - massive. A tariff - massive. And we take theirs, same product, we charge them almost nothing. Does that make sense?

    China: They make a car, they send a car to the United States, they pay 2.5 percent, but they don't pay because there's ways around it. So they pay nothing. We make a car, we send it to China - number one, they don't take it because they have a barrier. They don't want our cars. They want them made in China. Hey, who can blame them - if they can get away with it? But when they do take them, they charge us 25 percent. So we charge them nothing; they charge us 25 percent. Somehow, that doesn't work too well. And that's what's happened. And there was never anybody to say, no, we can't do that.

    China told me they could do whatever they wanted; nobody would ever call them. They would do things that were so onerous to us. They told me this, the top people - I have a great relationship - and they expected to be called the next day, "Don't you do that." And nobody would call. So they left it, like the 25-percent tax on cars. Think of it: We charge them essentially nothing; they charge us 25 percent. That doesn't work out too well for us, and we're changing it.

    We've taken the toughest ever action to stand up to the unfair trade practices from China. We've sent so much money to China that we are largely - they've done an incredible job - but largely responsible for building and rebuilding China. And I don't blame President Xi and I don't blame the leadership in China, and I don't blame China. I blame our country and our leadership for allowing it to happen. We should have been so smart to do what they're doing. (Applause.)

    Chinese companies have tried to steal our trade secrets and the trade secrets of American agricultural businesses. You know, you have a lot of trade secrets that are incredible. Who would have known? But you have incredible secrets on growing and plants. I mean, you have unbelievable - I looked at it; I couldn't believe the level of sophistication in the farm business. This isn't what it was 25 years ago.

    But China has taken many of those great, brilliant things that you've come up with, and they've stolen it. And so have other countries. And China has banned imports of U.S. agricultural products, such as poultry, cutting our farmers and ranchers off from their market. But we'll get it opened up again. We'll get it opened up. Or we're just going to be a little tough, because, you know, we put out $250 billion worth of product - we're charging tariffs - $250 billion; this never happened before. They said, "Where did this guy come from?" Where did he come from?

    After decades of economic abuse, we are finally fighting back as a country. We're not going to take it anymore. To help American products compete and win all around the world, we passed the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. And our tax cuts will save family farms and small-business owners from the deeply unfair estate tax, also known as the death tax, so that your farms will stay in your families without you borrowing a fortune from the banks - (applause) - mortgaging your farms so that you can pay off the tax. (Applause.)

    This guy with the horn, he obviously - I guess - I assume you're going to be inheriting a farm. He stood up so fast. (Laughter.) There will be no estate tax on these farms. You know what this is? That's the difference between saving it. And I tell the parents all the time - I say, look, if your kids are bad - he's good - but if your kids are bad, this doesn't mean anything. Don't leave your farm to the kids. You don't like them. (Laughter.) Who are the parents in the room? Are there any parents in the room that do not like their children? Huh? (Laughter.) Sell them. Oh, there is one hand up. Can you believe? (Laughter.) I should bring him up and interview him right now. It would be very interesting.

    But, you know, it's so unfair - because you have a farm, you work hard. The children work hard for many years. The parents are so proud of the farm. And then all of a sudden - all of a sudden, something happens, and you get tremendous taxes. Tremendous. And you go to the banks and your borrow money, and then you have a little bit of a downturn and you end up losing the farm. You don't have to worry about it anymore. Nobody talks about this, but there's no more estate tax on those small farms and businesses, and it's a great thing. So you keep the farm in the family. Congratulations, everybody. You're very rich. (Applause.) You just became very rich.

    By the way, a friend of mine is in the audience, one of the greatest businessmen in the world, Mr. Steve Hilbert. Stand up, Steve. From Indianapolis, by the way. From Indiana. A Hoosier. (Applause.) Great. Now one of the great, great businessmen in the world. Thank you, Steve, for being here. I appreciate it.

    We have liberated our farmers and ranchers from an avalanche of federal regulation. You know that very well. We've removed more job-killing regulations than any administration in history. And we've all done that. We've done that in less than two years. No administration, whether it's four years, eight years - or more, in one case - has done more. Has done nearly as much. Has done anywhere close.


    Last fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture eliminated eight burdensome regulations, saving nearly $400 million for farmers. And regulatory reduction efforts by the USDA are projected to save Americans another $1 billion this year alone. And much more into the future. (Applause.)

    Since the day I took office, we have removed, delayed, cancelled, or withdrawn more than 2,200 planned federal rules and regulations. These regulations don't just destroy jobs; they limit your freedom, they sap your resources, they interfere in your businesses, and they undermine your way of life.

    We are ditching one of the most ridiculous regulations of all, except it's got the most beautiful name, the title. I said, "Oh, I'm going to sign this, because I know how bad it is. I'm going to get killed." And I didn't, because everybody knew how bad. It's got the most beautiful title - the disastrous Waters of the United States rule. You know what that is. Well, maybe not that many. (Laughs.) (Applause.) You know what it is? It means you couldn't farm your land. It means you couldn't build houses on your land. It means you couldn't do anything with your land. If you had a little puddle on your land - you heard this - it was considered, for purposes of that rule, a lake. And you came under restrictions and regulations that made it impossible to go anywhere near it. Honestly, it was insane. It was ridiculous. Except for that beautiful title.

    Well, I did another one too: the Paris Accord. That drained us. That drained us. That was costing us - that would have cost us hundreds of billions of dollars, the environmental accord. And we, right now, have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, which is what I want. I want absolutely immaculate air and crystal, clean water. That's what we all want. And we now have the cleanest we've ever had. (Applause.)

    Government has no business micro-managing your stock tanks, drainage ditches, or the rain puddles in your backyard, putting farmers out of business, taking away your profits, putting you into the red. They have no right to do that.

    We're also rebuilding our water infrastructure, upgrading the dams, irrigation systems, and inland waterways that are the lifeblood of American agriculture. And in places in the Midwest, we're helping you with your Internet systems where you have such poor access. (Applause.)

    We're removing roadblocks to cutting-edge biotechnology, freeing our scientists to innovate, thrive, and to grow. Nobody like you. There's nobody close to the American farmer in your industry. Nobody close. And we have the greatest equipment in the world. Nobody makes the equipment like our great companies make the equipment, whether it's John Deere, or Jacobsen, or Toro, or Case, or so many others. All great.

    I mean, I'm not reading this from anything, this is - I know - I buy too much of it. I have to buy a lot. And that - these are great companies. These are phenomenal - nobody has companies like that. Nobody. And we have to protect them, too. We can't let others take advantage of our companies, because it's jobs, it's technology. We have to protect our great companies.