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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, December 23, 2024
Some of the largest and most influential American farm groups are uniting to make their voices heard on reforming trade rules of the World Trade Organization as the institution prepares for its upcoming 12th Ministerial Conference.
Senate Democrats are proposing a tariff on carbon-intensive imports that critics say could increase farm production costs and invite retaliation by countries that would see the tax as unfairly protectionist.
Lawmakers, lobbyists and farm groups are anxious for the Biden administration to take its first concrete steps to begin negotiating international trade agreements and reform at the World Trade Organization to improve international access for U.S. goods as well as rein in China’s expanding global influence.
The U.S. was one of nine countries critical of the European Union last year when it unveiled a plan to tax imports based on their carbon footprint, but that was under the Trump administration. Now the Biden administration is signaling a stronger kinship to the EU’s push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on an international scale.
Tom Vilsack is trying to reassure farmers and their allies in Congress that the Biden administration’s drive to address climate change will provide significant economic benefits without jeopardizing demand for biofuels.
The U.S. is ratcheting up its punishment on the European Union with new tariffs on French and German wine and other alcoholic beverages as both sides remain entrenched over aircraft subsidies.
President-elect Joe Biden tells a New York Times columnist that he won't immediately remove the 25% tariffs on Chinese exports, but instead will reassess the situation and work with allies to pressure China to stop intellectual property abuses.
China is again promising that it has made structural changes to its tariff rate quota system to import corn, wheat and rice, but it’s still not clear if that’s the case as the new deadline approaches for the U.S. to tell the World Trade Organization if it agrees.
A World Trade Organization panel ruled Tuesday that the U.S. broke its international commitments by circumventing the WTO dispute system and hitting China in 2018 with tariffs on $234 billion worth of its goods.
