By Nick Gale, WLS-AM News

(CHICAGO)  The Illinois Farm Bureau isn’t happy with President Donald Trump backing out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert, Jr. said in a statement Monday that Illinois agriculture depends on free trade agreements to sell products. He says 46 percent of Illinois exports go to Trans-Pacific countries and that the TPP was expected to increase Illinois’ cash receipts and net exports by $281.1 million and $127.4 million per year respectively. Guebert says it is estimated that the increased marketing opportunities for Illinois farmers would have added more than 960 jobs to the Illinois economy and that Trump’s executive order to withdraw the United States from the TPP is “another setback to an already struggling economy.”

Trump also said he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement “at the appropriate time” and said he wanted future deals to be between just two countries.

Guebert says he hopes the administration “will recognize the importance of NAFTA to Illinois farmers’ income when renegotiating the deal.”

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