As President Donald Trump signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law on Wednesday, some area farmers said they were feeling optimistic. But while it will be good to support trade between the U.S. and two of its biggest agricultural export markets, they said there’s still some uncertainty as to how big the impact of the new agreement will be.

“There’s a lot of optimism,” said Josh Lingen, a Balaton dairy farmer. Part of the USMCA gives American dairy farmers more access to markets in Canada. At a time when U.S. dairy consumption is down and dairy farmers are hurting, increased exports could be positive.

“We’re hoping for a good year,” and not just in terms of milk and cheese exports, Lingen said. “We’re hoping with Mexico, we can get our beef exports up there.”

Marshall area pork producer Greg Boerboom said the USMCA was “a great deal” for American pork, although not because of changes to trade with Mexico and Canada.

“It reinforces what we have,” and keeps zero-tariff trade for pork, Boerboom said. About 25% of U.S. pork is exported, and Mexico is one of the biggest markets for it. “Mexico and Canada are two trade partners that we definitely want to keep.”

Boerboom said the USMCA was also part of a wider pattern of trade deals that could be positive for U.S. pork producers. In the past couple of years, the U.S. has also revised or entered into trade agreements with South Korea, Japan and China, which are all important customers for American pork exports.

But while there are hopes for a positive outcome from the USMCA, area farmers said it hasn’t prompted any big changes right away.

“I think people were expecting a big market change,” Lingen said. However, it doesn’t look like that’s happened yet.

“Everybody was hoping for some improvement,” said Lake Benton area farmer Jim Nichols. However, he said the USMCA doesn’t seem to have led to better demand or prices for corn and soybeans. “The markets did not respond favorably.”

Area corn producers may find better prices locally from ethanol producers, rather than from exports, he said.

“The demand for corn is good, for ethanol,” Nichols said.