In a meeting between administration officials and members of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley highlighted the risk of retaliation to farmers and ranchers who depend on overseas markets to sell their products.

“If the president can negotiate better deals for the United States, I’m all for it, but I don’t want to see anything that hurts major sectors of the economy, like agriculture,” Grassley said in a statement following the meeting.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump frequently denounced the country’s track record on trade deals.

He vowed to renegotiate the longstanding North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, and to abandon the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership that was negotiated under President Barack Obama.

Trump said his preference is for bilateral deals between the United States and one other country, because those are easier to exit if the U.S. feels unfairly treated.

Since taking office, President Trump has made good on his pledge to ditch the TPP — much to the dismay of those in farm country.

Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson, for example, said he was disappointed at Trump’s move on the Pacific trade agreement. Nelson said at the time that the pact would have increased agricultural cash receipts for Nebraska by more than $378 million annually — benefiting pork producers as well as corn and soybean farmers.

More recently, the Trump administration briefly floated the idea of a 20 percent import tax on Mexican products to help pay for a wall along the border between the two countries. While the White House quickly backed off that proposal, it caused alarm among ag groups who feared possible retaliation.

Grassley sought to convey those concerns when he and other Finance Committee members met Tuesday with two top Trump advisers — Peter Navarro of the newly created National Trade Council and Jason Greenblatt, special representative for international trade negotiations.

“I pointed out that U.S. agriculture is often the first target when countries retaliate against the United States on trade,” Grassley said.

He noted reports that a Mexican lawmaker is working on a bill directing his country to stop purchasing U.S. corn and instead buying from Brazil and Argentina — apparently in response to Trump’s trade talk.