Report Trumps Renegotiation of NAFTA Could Skunk Your Corona

[riversedge]

Report
Trump’s Renegotiation of NAFTA Could Skunk Your Corona


http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/22/trumps-renegotiation-of-nafta-could-skunk-your-corona/

Trouble brews for Mexican beer as uncertainty over trade policies threatens U.S. exports of two key ingredients

By Jessica Holzer
May 22, 2017

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Mexican beer may be brewed and bottled south of the border, but the key ingredients — the hops and the barley — come mostly from the northern United States...............................

That win-win relationship is now at risk with clouds hanging over the North American Free Trade Agreement. Farmers are worried that the Trump administration’s tough stance on Mexico will rupture their long-nurtured trade relationship with America’s southern neighbor, and give Canadian and European growers an advantage in what has long been a privileged American market.
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The high-altitude region of eastern Idaho where Brown’s 10,000-acre farm sits has a short growing season. If barley sales dried up, his only other option would be wheat, and the switch would be costly. “This is barley country. You can’t grow much else,” he said.

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Mexico is the biggest market for U.S. barley growers, and the second-biggest market for hops producers. U.S. farmers supplied nearly three-quarters of the $265 million in barley and malt, and the $37 million in hops, imported by Mexico and largely used for beer production last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That’s largely due to NAFTA, which gives U.S. exports tariff-free access to Mexico.

Under NAFTA, “it’s the same for a barley producer from Idaho to ship its grain to Monterrey as it is to Milwaukee,” Javier Chavez, a marketing specialist at the U.S. Grains Council in Mexico, said. By contrast, European barley growers face “quotas and a tariff system that could be changed anytime a politician finds it suitable to protect Mexico’s market.”

But that access is now up in the air. Canada, Mexico and the United States are set to begin talks to renegotiate NAFTA as soon as August......................



In 2005, Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona and Modelo, built a $60 million plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho for malting barley for the Mexican beer industry. .........................

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[democratisphere]

1. How the hell are we supposed to put up with drumpf and all of his manufactured chaos

without "my Corona" beer?!