Governor Kim Reynolds and an Iowa contingency are in Japan to negotiate trade opportunities.

The U.S.-Japan Trade Deal was recently approved by the U.S. Congress and Iowa’s Fourth Congressional Representative Steve King says the deal gives the country another trading partner while trade negotiations are ongoing with China.

“It helps our balance of trade and I’d rather deal with the Japanese anyway. They have actually been our good trading partners for a long time. They are our allies in that part of the world, they’re not a challenger to us. There’s a prosperity that comes from that trade. So I’m happy to see Japan get more prosperous as we get more prosperous as we sell to them.”

While King says he wasn’t initially in favor of President Donald Trump’s new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, he later supported it. King worries that the House won’t pass the agreement  until next year. King says if that happens, China will not come to a new trade agreement with the U.S.

“I think the Chinese watch that and they’re thinking, ‘If they can slow walk that long enough, we’ll slow walk our negotiations and maybe we’ll end up with a different president that won’t be so tough on us for stealing the intellectual property from the Americans.’”

 King points out, Iowa farmers are still feeling the squeeze with all of the different trade agreements not finalized with other countries.