More than 50 organizations representing food and ag interests are seeking additional trade market support to bolster U.S. ag exports. In a letter addressed to Congress, the groups point out that global competitors such as China and the European Union are outpacing the U.S. with regard to trade agreements with tariff reduction. For that reason, the groups are encouraging Congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority legislation.
“For 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture now forecasts that the U.S. will run a food and agriculture trade deficit of $14.5 billion,” the letter states. “This should be a wake-up call regarding America’s declining economic influence in the world due to our failure to advance new tariff-reducing trade agreements.”
Signatories of the letter include the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the Almond Alliance. The coalition suggests Congress provide direction for the critical nature of expanding new trade market opportunities for agriculture. Failure to advance new tariff-reducing trade agreements could put the U.S. further behind. “Between 2010 and 2020, China and the European Union enjoyed over twice as much advantage from trade agreement tariff reductions as the U.S. In this decade, our situation to date is far worse,” the groups point out in the letter.
It has been more than a decade since a comprehensive trade agreement opened a new trade market for U.S. products. The groups note that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement can serve as a model for similar trade approaches in other areas. However, the organizations recommend immediate and decisive action to keep U.S. exports competitive.
“Taking markets from established competitors is far more difficult than establishing footholds as markets open,” the coalition points out. “Further, economic competitors use trade agreements to establish rules of trade that give them long term structural advantages, such as the European Union’s monopolistic geographic indications trade policies. Thus, in establishing trade relationships, first movers have a major advantage.”
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