The value of U.S. agricultural exports over the past four years is 28.5% higher than when Joe Biden became president, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and USDA announced Monday.
Touting the Biden-Harris administration’s record on ag trade, USTR and USDA also said in a news release that since 2021, the federal government “has secured over $26.7 billion in agricultural market access across the globe for America’s farmers, ranchers, fishers, and food manufacturers.”
Examples of that access include lower tariffs in India for apples, frozen duck, frozen chicken, pecans, blueberries, cranberries, chickpeas, lentils, almonds, and walnuts and “the ability to ship fresh potatoes to Mexico beyond a 26-kilometer zone along the U.S.-Mexico border.” That barrier had been in place since 2003.
The administration has been criticized by members of Congress and ag trade associations for not pushing for more trade deals and for presiding over a growing ag trade deficit, but Amb. Doug McKalip, USTR's chief ag trade negotiator, told Agri-Pulse Monday that “at the end of the day, farmers or ranchers just want to see market access, and they want to see results.”
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He also said that a fact sheet summarizing agreements reached with trading partners includes “a long list of” trade deals.
“Sometimes, folks in D.C. expect to see a long acronym, a fancy title” for trade deals, McKalip said, but farmers and ranchers “don't care if there's not a really super-long acronym, or if it takes five years and a bunch of negotiating rounds. They just want to see a change of market access, and that's certainly what we're showing here.”
The USDA-USTR news release said the expanded market access has contributed to "the four largest annual export values between 2021 and 2024, including a record-high of $196 billion in agricultural exports in 2022."
That number has fallen since then. USDA estimates the ag trade deficit will hit nearly $43 billion in fiscal 2025, when U.S. exports are estimated to be worth $169.5 billion.
On a topic of concern to the U.S. ethanol industry – Brazil’s current 18% tariff on U.S. imports – McKalip said there have been “many meetings happening very recently here on that topic. We’re going to continue to push to get that tariff reduced. It's super-important for our farmers, super-important for equity.”
Asked about his own plans, McKalip said, “My approach, I think the approach of all of us, is working hard every day. That's why we're in these positions, and we work as hard as we can to get results. And that's all I'm focused on.”
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