On RFD-TV: Jill O'Donnell

RFD TV Author

07/29/2020 Added

8 Plays

Description

Jill O'Donnell, director of the Yeutter Institute of International Trade, appears live on RFD-TV, July 28, 2020. She discusses a new report shedding light on how Midwesterners feel about foreign trade policy.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.420]Well with a growing effort to bring more voices
[00:00:02.830]from the Heartland into the foreign policy debate,
[00:00:05.140]the University of Nebraska is releasing a report
[00:00:07.790]highlighting farmer perceptions of international trade.
[00:00:11.030]Jill O'Donnell from the UNL Clayton Yeutter Institute
[00:00:14.340]for international trade and finance joins us now
[00:00:17.090]for a further look the report,
[00:00:18.990]and Jill, thanks for taking the time to chat
[00:00:20.810]with us here this morning.
[00:00:22.070]Bring us up to speed on this update
[00:00:24.070]and of course, the highlights that you see from the data.
[00:00:27.635]Sure, thanks for having me, Janet.
[00:00:29.920]I think first it's important to understand
[00:00:31.650]that the impetus for this report came from Washington DC,
[00:00:34.600]where there is a growing recognition of the need
[00:00:36.720]to bring more voices from the Heartland
[00:00:38.430]into the foreign policy debate,
[00:00:39.901]which traditionally has been dominated
[00:00:41.910]by the coastal cities.
[00:00:43.210]So what we wanted to understand in this report
[00:00:45.000]was how to understand the economic impact
[00:00:48.360]of US foreign policy on people living in the Heartland.
[00:00:51.100]The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
[00:00:52.830]the foreign policy research organization in Washington
[00:00:55.330]decided to build a research agenda around this question
[00:00:58.021]and they partnered with universities in three states:
[00:01:00.690]Ohio, Colorado and Nebraska,
[00:01:02.510]to talk to people living there about
[00:01:03.750]their views on foreign policy.
[00:01:05.230]So last summer, 2019, we here in Nebraska
[00:01:08.237]partnered with the Carnegie Endowment
[00:01:09.950]to talk with over 130 people in six communities
[00:01:12.690]across the state, representing a diverse
[00:01:15.090]array of backgrounds and industries
[00:01:16.830]about their views on foreign policy.
[00:01:18.720]And what did you learn about--
[00:01:19.720]And in terms of highlights--
[00:01:20.610]perceptions?
[00:01:22.560]Sure, so two things really stood out to us.
[00:01:25.870]First was how unified the Nebraskans
[00:01:28.200]that we talked to were on the question of trade policy.
[00:01:31.090]When we asked people to tell us
[00:01:33.300]how they view the impact of US foreign policy economically
[00:01:35.600]on their own lives, on their communities, on the state,
[00:01:39.410]almost every single person put the impact of trade policy
[00:01:42.220]on the state's agriculture sector at the top of the list.
[00:01:45.280]Now Nebraska does have a diversified economy and workforce.
[00:01:48.630]However, one in four jobs in the state
[00:01:51.180]are connected in some way to agriculture,
[00:01:53.930]directly or indirectly.
[00:01:55.300]Moreover, Nebraska is a leading state
[00:01:57.500]when it comes to the production
[00:01:58.650]and export of many agricultural products.
[00:02:01.120]So export markets are important,
[00:02:03.211]but what was really striking was that we heard this message
[00:02:06.770]on trade policy from both rural
[00:02:09.040]and urban residents alike all across the state.
[00:02:12.540]Very consistently, the clear message that we heard
[00:02:14.540]was the more international trade, the better.
[00:02:17.420]So what comes next after seeing this report
[00:02:19.620]and the outcome?
[00:02:21.600]Yeah, well, a couple of things there.
[00:02:22.700]So one other finding that I should mention, secondly,
[00:02:25.290]is that pretty consistently the respondents told us
[00:02:27.860]they didn't trust official Washington,
[00:02:30.810]or the news media to provide unbiased information
[00:02:33.220]on trade and foreign policy.
[00:02:34.570]And they didn't know where to go to find more sources
[00:02:36.250]on those topics when they wanted to learn more.
[00:02:37.860]So what that points to is a need for more trust building,
[00:02:40.240]which is what you're going to see happening next,
[00:02:42.500]more efforts on that.
[00:02:43.970]So, you know, in order to build trust between
[00:02:46.060]the foreign policy professionals acting on our behalf
[00:02:49.280]and those living in the Heartland,
[00:02:50.830]you need to get out of Washington more
[00:02:52.090]and actively understand people's interests
[00:02:53.720]and you're already seeing more efforts to do that
[00:02:55.220]in studies like this one,
[00:02:56.240]and that's what you'll see going forward more.
[00:02:58.370]Which also happens to be very much in line
[00:03:00.140]with the mission of the Yeutter Institute
[00:03:01.530]here at the University of Nebraska.
[00:03:03.630]Jill, now that this report is somewhat wrapped up,
[00:03:06.350]where do you guys go next
[00:03:07.750]and continue this research project?
[00:03:11.000]Great question, Janet, thank you.
[00:03:12.560]What we're going to do is focus
[00:03:13.931]some of these research questions
[00:03:16.050]and some of the questions that came out of this report
[00:03:17.920]for further study on our students and their education,
[00:03:21.810]so we do have a new group of students we put together
[00:03:23.900]in the Yeutter Institute starting when the semester
[00:03:27.100]begins in August,
[00:03:27.992]that will come together to really look hard
[00:03:30.030]at trade policy and foreign policy and economics.
[00:03:32.910]And so we're going to build some research questions
[00:03:34.700]following on from this report and get our
[00:03:36.890]students tackling some of these questions
[00:03:38.670]as part of their education as well.
[00:03:40.540]Jill, one final question for you,
[00:03:41.970]when you look back at the report and the results
[00:03:43.930]and the respondents, what they had to say,
[00:03:45.571]were there any surprises?
[00:03:49.520]So I think as I mentioned it earlier on at the outset,
[00:03:52.840]that the consistency of opinion on trade policy
[00:03:57.541]was a little bit surprising to hear that,
[00:03:59.680]just so consistent consistently across rural
[00:04:02.230]and urban areas, and how everyone recognized
[00:04:04.040]how important agriculture is to the economy of this state.
[00:04:07.150]So I think that was really the surprise
[00:04:08.940]and perhaps a little less surprising was
[00:04:11.661]the finding that people really don't know where to go
[00:04:15.410]to find more information they feel they can trust
[00:04:17.040]to learn about these topics.
[00:04:18.780]What was surprising was just how often we heard that,
[00:04:21.350]so that's something we'd like to help address through
[00:04:23.890]the Yeutter Institute as well
[00:04:24.840]and our mission in public engagement on these topics.
[00:04:27.700]All right, well Jill, thank you very much for joining us.
[00:04:29.250]You can go online to yeutter-institute.unl.edu
[00:04:32.980]for additional information.
[00:04:33.990]Again, talking with Jill O'Donnell.
[00:04:35.830]She's with the University of Nebraska in Lincoln,
[00:04:38.030]joining us of course, on location there in the Husker state.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

On RFD-TV: Jill O'Donnell

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments