What the new NAFTA deal means for American farmers

The revised trilateral trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada will benefit American farmers, according to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

“It will mean better access,” he said on Wednesday during an interview with FOX Business’ Trish Regan. “It will lock in those markets.”

After more than a month of at times tumultuous discussions, the U.S. and Canada announced on Sunday they had negotiated a deal to revamp the decades-old North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico and the U.S. had already resigned a new pact in late August. The new deal will be renamed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Now, American farmers will have access to Canada’s dairy market, which was one of the big sticking points in negotiations. Dairy producers in the U.S. will be able to sell more milk, cheese and other dairy products north of the border.

“Locking in those markets with certainty means a lot of momentum, where we can go put others in the bag,” Perdue said. “We can go to Japan and negotiate with them now. We can get with the [European Union] and look to see if China wants to come along.”

Canada is the second-biggest trading partner of the U.S., and Mexico is the third.