U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testified before the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committee this week about President Biden’s trade policy.
Before the hearings, NGFA urged the administration to “recommit to an aggressive trade agenda to meaningfully expand export opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products.”
In the April 15 letter to Ambassador Tai, NGFA and 32 other agricultural stakeholders also called on USTR to “stringently and effectively” enforce existing trade agreements.
“Comprehensive trade agreements and elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers help ensure that U.S. agriculture can compete on an even playing field in our export markets,” the groups stated. “It is critical the U.S. press international trading partners to implement objective science and risk-based regulatory measures, and that those obligations are upheld when threatened.”
During the hearings, Ambassador Tai focused on China, supply chain concerns and several agricultural trade barriers, including Mexico’s ban on biotech corn.
House Republicans said the Biden administration is hurting farmers by not pursuing new trade agreements. Senate Republicans highlighted China’s failure to meet its 2020 commitments to buy U.S. agricultural products; however, Ambassador Tai said the Biden administration has kept pressure on the Chinese leadership by maintaining Trump-era tariffs.