NAWG Pushes Back on Trump

NAWG Pushes Back on Trump

Russell Nemetz
Russell Nemetz
The National Association of Wheat Growers took umbrage Wednesday to President Donald Trump's criticisms about trade with Japan.

The president spoke at a Shell petrochemical plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, championing the country's strength in fossil fuel production. When his speech touched on new steel mills, Trump pivoted to trade with Japan, noting Japan trades cars for wheat.

"Many car plants -- they're coming in from Japan. I told Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe -- great guy. I said, 'Listen, we have a massive deficit with Japan.' They send thousands and thousands -- millions -- of cars. We send them wheat. Wheat."

Trump's comments drew laughter, and the president added: "That's not a good deal. And they don't even want our wheat. They do it because they want us to at least feel that we're okay. You know, they do it to make us feel good."

The National Association of Wheat Growers took to the president's favorite social media platform, Twitter, and offered a retort.

NAWG @wheatworld, wrote "@realDonaldTrump Mr. President, Japan is the #1 market for US wheat exports on average, where we hold just over 50% of the market. They don't buy our wheat because "they want us to feel okay." They buy it because it's the highest quality wheat in the world. That's not fake news."

The U.S. exported about 2.66 million metric tons of wheat (about 97.7 million bushels) in the 2018-19 marketing year that ended May 31.

Source: DTN

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