Clayton Yeutter, Blunt Negotiator of Intricate Trade Deals, Dies at 86 -
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKMARCH 8, 2017
Clayton Yeutter, a lawyer who oversaw negotiations with Canada under President Ronald Reagan
that became the basis for the North American Free Trade Agreement, died on Saturday at his home in Potomac, Md.
A farmer from birth, Mr. Yeutter, who was secretary of agriculture under President George Bush and, earlier, the United States trade
representative under Reagan, negotiated complex economic deals with a bluntness more common in pastures than in politics.
As secretary of agriculture under Mr. Bush from 1989 to 1991, Mr. Yeutter passed a 1990 farm bill
that dialed back some of the farm subsidies approved in 1985, creating a more market-oriented approach to agriculture policy.
Before he was confirmed as agriculture secretary in 1989, a profile in called him
“a burly, back-thumping, 58-year-old official with the voice of a hog caller.”
Mr. Yeutter often employed that voice to argue for reduced restrictions on trade.
When the deal was made final on Oct. 4, 1987, Mr. Yeutter told Sam Donaldson of ABC News
that it was “the most important bilateral arrangement that we’ve ever negotiated in the history of the country,” adding that workers on both sides of the border should consider it a “win-win.”
“When you have an agreement in which economic activity is going to increase in both countries, there should be more jobs in both places,” he said.