The National Chicken Council, along with 28 other organizations representing farmers, ranchers, food processors and exporters, sent a letter to President Trump this week, expressing their support of the provision contained in the 2014 Farm Bill requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to establish an Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
“International trade is critically important to the economic vitality of the U.S. agriculture and food industry and a major engine of U.S. economic growth. Our vast and efficient export system, including handling, processing, and distributing our food and agriculture products, creates millions of U.S. jobs and helps feed hundreds of millions all over the globe,” the letter said.
But, “despite that enormous success, the trade organizational structure at the U.S. Department of Agriculture has remained unchanged since it was last reorganized in 1978,” the letter pointed out. “Over this period, the value and nature of U.S. agriculture exports has changed dramatically. In 1978, U.S. agriculture exports totaled $29 billion. In 2016, they reached $130 billion. The U.S. agriculture and food industry is ideally positioned to experience significant growth in the decades ahead given projected population growth of an additional 2.5 billion people by 2050. Yet with these opportunities will also come significant changes to keep existing foreign markets open and gain access to new emerging markets for U.S. farm and food products,” the organizations said.
“For those reasons, we support the creation of the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs position as the 2014 Farm Bill required. “Such a position will bring unified high level representative to key trade negotiations with senior, foreign officials and within the Executive branch.”
“We believe it is vitally important for U.S. agriculture to fully capitalize on the long-term increased global demand for farm and food products in an increasingly competitive marketplace. We can take a major stop towards that goal by ensuring that the trade structure at USDA is effectively positioned to address the trade challenges and enormous opportunities that await us in the decades ahead. To this end, we strongly urge the Department to move forward with establishing the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs,” the letter concluded.
