Trade

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Mexico’s Supreme Court refused last week for the second time in six weeks to make a ruling that could allow substantial new access to the Mexican market worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually for U.S. potatoes, fueling Mexican farmers' determination to continue their fight against the trade.

Some 300 corporations, including some industry giants in the agriculture and food industry, are calling on President Joe Biden to commit the U.S. to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 from 2005 levels.

U.S. farmers, government officials and academics told the International Trade Commission that unfair Mexican trade had caused steep losses in domestic vegetable markets, an accusation countered by representatives of Mexican exporters.

The Philippines, already a big importer of U.S. pork, is lowering its tariffs to allow for more foreign supplies as the country continues to battle African swine fever, according to an announcement made Wednesday by the National Pork Producers Council.

New regulations in Mexico threaten to disrupt more than $100 million in organic food trade with the U.S., and the Biden administration has less than three months to address the situation before the requirements take effect.

Two major agribusinesses have entered into a sales agreement for 11 grain facilities ahead of an anticipated Department of Justice divestiture order.

The U.S. ag sector really wants to know what’s coming next for the tenuous trade situation with China, but farmers and ranchers may have to settle for the status quo in the near future as the Biden administration takes its first steps toward dealing with the communist country.

The U.S. on Monday suspended a formal trade tie with Burma two months after a military coup and the arrest of the country’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and others in her National League for Democracy party. The U.S. action comes after years of increasing agricultural trade with Burma amid warming relations between the two countries, but that progress is now threatened.

The U.S. shipped 353,200 metric tons of sorghum – roughly 14 million bushels - to China from March 5-11, an extraordinarily high amount that helped push prices to $5 per bushel, according to the latest USDA trade data and an analysis by the National Sorghum Producers.

U.S. farm groups are concerned about the increasing agricultural trade troubles with Mexico and Canada despite the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and Biden administration officials are stressing that resolving those issues is a priority.