KENNEWICK — Despite the fact that the U.S. Congress is deeply divided along partisan lines, legislators are still getting a lot of important bills passed — including a revised trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
“A lot of things have actually gotten done in the last few months,” said Kam Quarles, the chief executive of the National Potato Council.
Quarles, who spoke to the Washington-Oregon Potato Conference at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, noted that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement passed both houses of Congress “with huge bipartisan votes.”
“We can get a deal done,” he said. “It can occur in this environment.”
Quarles also praised the trade agreement signed with Japan, which allowed the U.S. to replace the tariff benefits lost when President Donald J. Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Japan has agreed to eliminate tariffs on U.S. French fries, he said, putting the U.S. on an equal footing with Japan’s other trading partners. “That’s a win,” he said.
