Bipartisan Bill Could Require More Reporting on Export Barriers for Fruit, Nuts, Vegetables
The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee introduced a bill that would require USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to produce annual reports identifying the acts, policies or practices that create significant barriers to exports of U.S. fruits and vegetables or distort their own markets so that U.S. fruits, vegetables, nuts and flowers cannot be competitive.
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They bill calls for a report to cover tariffs, quotas, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, import licensing procedures and subsidies, and asks the agencies to estimate how much in forgone sales resulted from those measures. They said the report should detail what the administration had done in the previous year to negotiate on these matters or press for action at the World Trade Organization.
The Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Fruits and Vegetables and members of the public would comment on the issues as well, and those comments would be incorporated into the report, the bill instructs.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, lead the bill in the Senate, where it is co-sponsored by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine; Jim Risch, R-Idaho; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Susan Collins, R-Maine. They said Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.; David Valadao, R-Calif.; and Elissa Slotkin, R-Mich., will introduce companion legislation in the House.
The Specialty Crops Reporting on Opportunities and Promotion Act (Specialty CROP Act) expands the existing USDA Speciality Crop report by assessing whether free trade agreements cover the barriers described, and by requiring the administration to describe how it is pushing other countries to open market access.
“The world is hungry for grown-in-the-U.S. blueberries, potatoes, wine and other produce. But all too often our farmers and producers are stymied by unreasonable blockades in foreign markets," Wyden said in a news release announcing the bill Nov. 14.
“From high tariffs to onerous labeling requirements, America’s specialty crop growers face a range of barriers imposed by foreign nations that hinder their ability to export their high-quality products around the world,” Crapo said.
Potato growers, Northwestern fruit growers and the North American Blueberry Council hailed the bill.