WASHINGTON, USA – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced, Monday, that the Biden-Harris administration has secured over $26.7 billion in agricultural market access across the globe for America’s farmers, ranchers, fishers, and food manufacturers. Under president Joe Biden and vice president Harris’s leadership, United States trade representative Katherine Tai and secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack have worked to ensure American agriculture can reach global markets and customers around the world.
“Providing more opportunity and security for domestic agricultural producers is a top priority for this administration,” ambassador Tai said. “Secretary Vilsack and I believe that farmers and producers of all sizes can use international trade to reach new customers and support their families and their communities. Under president Biden and vice president Harris’s leadership, we are delivering for our agricultural stakeholders, opening up new markets, and strengthening our trading partnerships.”
“Trade serves as an economic engine for American agriculture, providing key opportunities for US farmers while also supporting food security throughout the world,” said secretary Vilsack. “That’s why under the Biden-Harris administration, USDA has worked to create more, new, and better markets for US producers and agribusinesses through new programs like the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program and Specialty Crops Competitiveness Initiative that expand and diversify our export customer base, broaden the types of products we sell overseas, and made it easier for more producers to take advantage of these markets. USDA will continue to work hand in hand with USTR to promote American exports across the globe, remove unfair barriers to trade, and strengthen trade relationships with our global partners.”
US food and agricultural exports are a critical driver of economic progress across the United States and have direct benefits for US agriculture. Exports support more than one million jobs and generate nearly $200 billion in additional economic activity each year in rural communities and beyond. Steady and sustained overseas sales provide a critical source of revenue for American agricultural producer and agribusinesses. About 20 percent of all US agricultural production is exported around the world, providing a significant share of producers’ cash receipts.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, USDA launched the $1.2 billion Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) to open new markets and strengthen existing ones for US agricultural and food producers and exporters. Funded through a $65 million set aside from RAPP, USDA also launched the Assisting Specialty Crop Exports (ASCE) initiative to support projects that advance US specialty crop exports by expanding domestic understanding of foreign food safety systems and foreign understanding of US food safety systems.
The initiative will also collect information needed for export certification, and packaging to meet other countries’ new requirements. As the US continues to diversify where it exports, what it exports, and who exports in global markets, initiatives like RAPP and ASCE are pivotal.
The Biden-Harris administration has delivered significant wins for US agricultural producers by lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. For example, the Biden-Harris administration achieved:
- Lower tariffs in India for ten agricultural commodities: apples, frozen duck, frozen chicken, pecans, blueberries, cranberries, chickpeas, lentils, almonds, and walnuts;
- The ability to ship fresh potatoes to Mexico beyond a 26-kilometer zone along the US-Mexico border after seeking access beyond the border zone since 2003;
- A new biofuel policy in Japan that allows the United States to compete for up to 100 percent of Japan’s on-road ethanol market; and
- A new agreement revising the beef safeguard mechanism under the US-Japan Trade Agreement, allowing US beef exporters to more reliably meet Japan’s growing demand for high-quality beef.
These wins for US agricultural producers helped deliver the four largest annual export values between 2021 and 2024, including a record-high of $196 billion in agricultural exports in 2022.
The four-year average of US agricultural exports is 28.5 percent higher today than when president Biden and vice president Harris took office. Achievements secured for US agricultural producers during the Biden-Harris administration and through close cooperation between USTR and USDA can be found here.
