By MELISSA HART

Michigan Correspondent

COLDWATER, Mich. — Pork tariffs, the dairy crisis and labor issues were front and center as USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue took his third “Back to our Roots” tour into Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky last week.

His focus in Michigan April 4 was on listening to the concerns of producers, researchers, business owners, community leaders and agricultural leaders and students. Trade with China was highly visible, as pork prices had taken a hit in recent days.

Perdue said the China situation is “serious, and it’s a reason for concern,” as he stood in the new Clemons Food Group pork processing facility in Coldwater, where employees process a hog from beginning to end every eight minutes.

“We had hoped that China would not have moved to phase two as quickly as they did, but obviously they put pork on that over the weekend, and that bothers us to some degree, but the administration is using these times to negotiate over serious issues.” Perdue said.

“From an agricultural perspective I’ve never met a farmer that I didn’t consider a good patriot with good American values and when you know that China, by all evidence, has acted unfairly in many areas regarding technology transfer and intellectual property theft, literally, and cyber-theft, farmers are going to want to do their share.”

But he also stressed that agriculture should not be the “only bullets in the gun.

“I understand that, and the President understands that,” he said. “The President does want free trade, but he wants fair trade most of all. Our American producers are so productive, they’re always on the tip of the spear over any kind of retaliatory reaction. I’ve had a personal conversation with the President and he’s convinced not to let agriculture bear the brunt of any kind of retaliatory measures.”

As North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations continue, Perdue said, “We hope that we can announce good results from NAFTA in the coming weeks, and we think that will help lower the anxiety of producers in the country and certainly guys here, as you are on the tip of the spear with pork.”

Michigan dairy producers receive nearly $2 per cwt. less for their milk than any other state and Perdue addressed the specific challenges of that industry. He noted the revamped Margin Protection Program (MPP) signup was to begin on April 9 and said thanks to Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the MPP would be more beneficial to dairy producers.

“It had gotten kind of a bad name because it wasn’t very effective previously, but I hope people will look at it again and see the protections that it offers, certainly on the first 5 million pounds of milk.” He added, “It’s going to help your small- or medium-size herds.”

Where trade is concerned, Perdue is hopeful the final NAFTA talks will address the Canadian dairy supply management difficulties. “That’s been a huge part of the problem of decreased world prices with their Class 7 circumvention in their supply management program,” he said.

“They’ve managed their supply domestically where they charge their consumers about twice what ours do, and then produce for the world market and depress prices globally. So those are the challenges we’ve talked with Ambassador (U.S. Trade Representative Robert) Lighthizer about addressing the dairy issues on the NAFTA program. Hopefully we can get some relief that way.”

Perdue also addressed the ag labor issue, pointing to the Securing America’s Future Act (House Resolution 4760) introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that was intended to reform the immigration system and provide a legislative solution for the current beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“The Goodlatte bill was a really good bill before it got watered down in committee, but we’ve been supporting it,” he explained. “We expected that to be integrated into a larger immigration bill, which is somewhat stalled, but we haven’t stopped there.

“We are in serious negotiations with the department(s) of Labor, State and Homeland Security over a modernized, revised H-2A program. Not the total solution obviously for a year-round type of operation like hogs, but nonetheless, we are hoping to get relief in that program for a legal workforce.”

Flanked by legislators and area Michigan Farm Bureau representatives, Perdue shared his enthusiasm about the state-of-the-art processing facility at Clemons Food Group and the importance of the quality and uniformity of the product being supplied to the facility.

“You can’t put a good product going out the back door if you don’t have a good one coming in, and it was evident that there are good producers here, and good processing makes for a good product,” he added.