Agricultural exports are important both to farmers and to the U.S. economy. Challenges China's Policies on Wheat, Rice, and Corn7

In September 2016, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) launched two dispute settlement cases against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Chinese policies that USTR alleges are inconsistent with its WTO obligations and have distorted international trade in wheat, rice, and corn. As such, the importance of improving access to overseas markets is readily apparent and is expected to factor more importantly in the years ahead, because the growth of food demand abroad is expected to far outpace increases in domestic demand. As negotiated, TPP would have materially increased the overseas markets to which U.S. farm and food products would have preferential access. U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)16

Agricultural issues have been an active topic of debate in the ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union (EU) to establish a free trade area as part of T-TIP. Some of the principal objectives of U.S. agricultural interests include expanding market access for U.S. agricultural exports, addressing regulatory concerns regarding certain SPS and related non-tariff trade measures, and addressing concerns about EU products characterized by "geographical indications" (GIs). In 2015, U.S. exports of agricultural products to the EU totaled $12 billion, while EU exports of agricultural products to the United States totaled $20 billion, resulting in a substantial trade deficit of nearly $8 billion for the United States. In addition, in June 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) voted to exit the EU (referred to as "Brexit"), and it remains to be seen what impact this will have on the T-TIP negotiation, since the UK accounts for a sizeable share (about 15%) of U.S. agricultural exports to the EU each year, and the exclusion of the UK from the EU could significantly reduce potential U.S. trade gains under a negotiated agreement. As the United States demonstrated that the outbreak was contained and eliminated, most of these bans were lifted. In September 2016, China's Ministry of Agriculture announced that it would lift the ban on U.S. beef. The suspension agreements limit Mexico's sugar exports to the United States to the residual of U.S. needs for domestic human use in a given marketing year minus U.S. production and imports from TRQ countries. U.S. exports of ultra-filtered milk enter Canada duty-free, and U.S. dairy producers, processors, and exporters view Ontario's Class 6 ingredients pricing initiative—and the prospect for a similar Canada-wide program—as an attempt to displace these U.S. exports with domestically sourced dairy ingredients. The same report observed that U.S. agricultural suppliers view prohibitions on providing credit on food and agricultural product sales and U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba as key obstacles to increasing U.S. farm exports to the island nation. Agricultural Trade ; CRS Report R43658, The U.S. Wine Industry and Selected Trade Issues with the European Union ; and CRS Report R44337, TPP: American Agriculture and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement . Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)71

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) provides duty-free tariff treatment for certain products from designated developing countries. With respect to agricultural interests, the Bali Agreement addressed five issues: (1) export competition — reconfirms a commitment to eliminate all export subsidies as part of the ongoing Doha Round, and asks for greater transparency and restraint in their use prior to their final elimination; (2) tariff rate quota (TRQ) administration — addresses persistently under-filled quotas; (3) temporary peace clause (established through 2017) — provides relief from challenge under the WTO dispute settlement process for a developing country's above-market purchases of commodities for food-security stockholding programs (described in more detail below), while working to find a permanent solution; (4) proposed list of green - box-eligible LDC-focused general services — adds new criteria of particular interest to developing countries to existing exemptions; and (5) cotton — regrets lack of progress in addressing LDC-related cotton issues, reiterates commitment to progress in negotiations on cotton, commits to meet twice yearly to study related issues, and reaffirms the importance of cotton to LDCs. COOL for beef and pork. Status: The inability of the WTO to move forward with the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations suggests that the WTO may not rapidly achieve the global trade goals of its members.
Trade, particularly exports, is critical to the vitality of American agriculture. On average, foreign markets absorb about one-fifth of U.S. agricultural production, thus contributing significantly to the health of the farm economy. The positive economic effects of trade in farm products are felt well beyond the farm gate. Farm product exports make up about 10% of total U.S. exports and contribute positively to the U.S. balance of trade. The economic benefits of agricultural exports also extend across rural communities, while overseas farm sales help to buoy a wide array of industries linked to agriculture, including transportation, processing, and farm input suppliers. Moreover, most of the future growth in food demand is expected to occur in developing countries.
Congress has traditionally displayed a keen interest in agricultural trade issues given their importance to farmers and ranchers and to the overall economy. The plethora of agriculture-related policy questions and trade issues in play as the 115th Congress convenes suggests that trade policy in general, as well as specific farm trade issues, may continue to draw congressional oversight and input. One ongoing concern has centered on the trade-distorting domestic policies abroad, including in China, which ranked as the second largest market for U.S. farm exports in FY2016. In late 2016 the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) launched two trade enforcement actions against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over its administration of tariff rate quotas for imports of wheat, rice, and corn and over its domestic support measures for these crops.
On the multilateral front, President Trump has ordered the withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) regional free trade agreement (FTA), which the United States and 11 other Pacific-facing nations signed but which Congress has not ratified. As negotiated, TPP would have significantly improved access for U.S. farm exports. USTR continues to negotiate with the European Union (EU) over a regional FTA—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)—involving a number of thorny agricultural issues that have proved to be impediments to trade, including differences over geographic indications (GI) and discontinuity in regulating the application of biotechnology to agricultural production, as well as access for these products to commercial markets. The United Kingdom vote to exit the EU has added to the already uncertain prospects for T-TIP.
At the global level, further liberalization of agricultural trade is an objective of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the WTO, but those talks have been at an impasse for several years. Of concern to the developing world, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)—which provides duty-free tariff treatment for certain products from developing countries and benefits from $2.6 billion in U.S. agricultural imports in 2015—will expire at the end of 2017 unless Congress extends it.
Beyond trade agreements, numerous other trade issues of importance to U.S. agriculture may be of interest to Congress. For one, suspension agreements that limit Mexico's sugar exports to the United States have come under increasing criticism from U.S. stakeholders and may have implications for the U.S. sugar program. In Cuba, U.S. farm and food interests see potential to meaningfully expand exports, but a prohibition on private U.S. financing is viewed as a major obstacle to this end. U.S. dairy interests object to a Canadian dairy ingredient pricing strategy that it believes is aimed at displacing U.S. ingredient exports. U.S. exports of beef, pork, and chicken continue to face bans and trade restrictions over disease outbreaks that are inconsistent with international trade protocols. Examples include China's ongoing bans on imports of U.S. beef and poultry and restrictions imposed by several foreign markets on U.S. ractopamine-fed pork. As the 115th Congress convenes, the United States has settled two long-running WTO challenges to its policies: one to its cotton program and another to its country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law.