An Iowa farmer who is a board member on the National Corn Growers Association is urging members of the U-S House to support open trade relations with China. Kyle Phillips, who farms in the Knoxville area, says both partners will prosper with increased trade.Phillips is past president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He says opening trade with China can mean a 360-million bushel improvement in corn demand. It takes 21 Iowa counties to produce that much corn. He says prices are terrible right now and increasing the demand will help.Phillips says a “yes” vote would also open the door for Iowa pork, beef and soybeans. Some say the U-S should not normalize permanent trade relations with China because of that nation’s human rights violations, like the Tianamen Square Massacre of 1989. Phillips disagrees, he says increased trade will encourage improvements in human rights. He says trade can be used to put pressure on China to improve.The U-S House is expected to vote on the trade issue later this month. Phillips says Iowa stands to win big from the trade agreement as nearly 23-percent of Iowa’s workforce is in some way tied to agriculture.
