VOA常速英语:美国贸易环境不确定，农民心里不踏实

It’s been a tough stretch for Illinois farmer Wendell Shauman.Costs for everything from fertilizer to seed have increased, but the price for his crops have (has) not.
对于伊利诺伊州农民温德尔·绍曼来说，这段日子很艰难。从肥料到种子，所有的成本都在增加，但他种植的农作物价格却没有上涨。

During the last four years, Shauman’s income has dropped,and he was hoping that erasing the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba would give his bottom line a little boost.
过去四年来，绍曼的收入下降了，他希望美国解除对古巴的贸易禁运，并相信这能给他带来收益上的好转。

“Cuba’s a logical market, something that’s 90 miles away should be your market.Politics has had that thing tied up, since probably I was in high school.”
“古巴应该是美国的一个市场，这点不用多说。两国的直线距离只有90英里，它应该是你的市场。由于政治上的关系，两国贸易受到影响，当时我可能是在念高中。”

Politics will keep it tied up, for now,as President Donald Trump seeks to reverse former President Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with the Caribbean island nation.
目前看来，这一问题仍将与政治紧密相联，因为总统唐纳德·特朗普试图扭转前任总统奥巴马为恢复与加勒比岛国古巴的关系正常化所做的努力。

“Walking away from a Cuba market is just nonsense too.It’s a market that is in our backdoor, you want to take advantage of that.”
“远离古巴市场简直就是胡说八道。古巴就好似我们的后门，你得利用这一优势。”

Shauman voted for Trump and while he understands how trade agreements can affect manufacturing jobs,he is at odds with some of the administration’s trade policies.“Never walk away from a trade deal, never walk away from a market.”
大选期间，绍曼将选票投给了特朗普，虽然他明白贸易协定如何影响制造业工作，但他的看法与当今政府的某些贸易政策并不一致。“永远不要抛弃某一贸易协定，永远不要远离某一市场。”

“I think the positions of the current administration on trade have been a little bit of a yo-yo for most farmers.”Tamara Nelsen is the Senior Director of Commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau.“Farmers don’t like to be told where they can sell food,and so they have long been opponents to the embargo, to any embargo that includes food products.They believe that the best way to change a government in a foreign country is to engage with them, not to take away their food.”
“我认为，对于大多数农民来说，目前政府在贸易问题上采取了一种摇摆的立场。”塔玛拉·尼尔森是伊利诺伊州农场局的商品部高级总监。“农民反感别人给他们规定，得把农产品卖到哪些地方去，所以长期以来，他们一直反对禁运，包括食品的禁运。他们认为，改变外国政府的最好办法是与他们打交道、多接触，而不是拿走他们的食物。”

The Illinois Farm Bureau is one of a number of organizations criticalof the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back trade with Cuba, but Nelsen admits it is a small market.
伊利诺伊州农场局在内的很多组织都对特朗普政府终止与古巴的贸易这一行为表示不满，但尼尔森承认这是一个小市场。

“It’s maybe 25, 30 million dollars a year, at best for a state like Illinois depending on what we are exporting in a given year.”
“双方贸易额约为2500万、3000万美元，按照我们在某一年度所出口的产品来算的话，这充其量只是伊利诺伊州的出口额。”

But trade in the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is a much bigger concern.“Trade with Canada and Mexico, our agricultural exports have quadrupled since the signing of NAFTA”,which, says Nelsen, translates into roughly 35,000 jobs in Illinois.It’s also a primary destination for Wendell Shauman’s crops.
但是，北美自由贸易协定（NAFTA）框架下所开展的贸易是一个更大的关切。“自北美自由贸易协定签署以来，我们与加拿大和墨西哥的贸易额、我们的农产品出口额均翻了两番”，尼尔森表示，这为伊利诺伊州创造了约3.5万个工作岗位。这也是温德尔·绍曼所种植的作物的主要出口地。

why Shauman was relieved when the Trump administration announced it wanted to renegotiate – not abandon –NAFTA, just after withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP earlier in the year.
“现在，墨西哥是我们的第一大玉米市场。你不能离开这个市场”，因此，当特朗普政府宣布想要就北美自由贸易协定重新进行谈判而不退出该协定时，绍曼松了口气，而在今年早些时候，美国正式宣布，退出跨太平洋伙伴关系协定（TPP）。

“That’s what we walk away from that, that’s, in my mind, that’s a huge mistake, if we get back into it, maybe we can still salvage some.”Until then, Wendell Shauman is waiting to see what changes in NAFTA the Trump administration wants,and how the weather will affect his harvest – and ultimately his bottom line - later this year.
“我们就那样退出了协定。在我看来，那是一个巨大的错误。如果我们重新加入跨太平洋伙伴关系协定，也许情况还可以补救。”温德尔·绍曼一直在等待着，特朗普政府在北美自由贸易协定上会作出哪些改变，以及天气将如何影响他的收成和最终收益，而这些答案将在今年晚些时候揭晓。

Kane Farabaugh, VOA News, Alton Illinois.
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