Let’s Level the Playing Field for Wheat
By Gordon Stoner, President of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and a wheat farmer from Outlook, Mont. This op-ed first appeared in “The Hill.” The United States is known for producing the highest quality wheat in the world, yet when U.S. farmers market their wheat at a Canadian elevator, it is automatically labeled […]
Hoping the Good News on EU Re-registration of Glyphosate is Not Meaningless
By Ben Conner, USW Director of Policy Many European farmers breathed a sigh of relief this week as the European Commission chose to extend registration of the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate for five years. But farmers in Europe and elsewhere around the world are justifiably worried about the challenges represented by the European Union’s pesticide policy. […]
New Study Examines Shifts in Global Agricultural Trade
Participants at the U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council annual meeting, Nov. 14 and 15, 2017, in Baltimore, Md., got an early look at a new study indicating that developing countries have been competing quite effectively in global agricultural trade. In addition, the study showed that agricultural products are often classified as “sensitive products” in trade […]
Success in the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement
By Elizabeth Westendorf, USW Assistant Director of Policy In 2006, the United States signed the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement, making it the first U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) that did not fully eliminate tariffs on wheat. Instead, the FTA included a tariff rate quota (TRQ) for U.S. wheat, which is now set at 360,000 metric […]
Vietnam Lifts Restrictions on U.S. Wheat Imports
Recently, Vietnam’s government advised the USDA that it would lift restrictions on imported U.S. food grains and feed grains. This change helped open an opportunity for Vietnamese flour millers who recently bought a large volume of U.S. soft white (SW) wheat, the first substantial sale of U.S. wheat to the Vietnam market in several months. […]
NAFTA Holds Mexico’s Door Open to U.S. Wheat; Could Open Cross-Border Trade with Canada
Original article published on Oct. 12, 2017 by the American Farm Bureau Federation in collaboration with U.S. Wheat Associates. Before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into force on Jan. 1, 1994, state intervention and import tariffs held back U.S. wheat exports from the Mexican market. NAFTA ended both, and the newly opened […]
The International Treaties Upholding Science-Based Wheat Trade
By Elizabeth Westendorf, Assistant Director of Policy It’s no secret that the U.S. wheat industry and its customers rely heavily on international trade rules to keep markets open and wheat moving. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the prime example of this, particularly in its limits on tariffs and subsidies that have done so much […]
Cuba’s Recovery from Another Hurricane Should be Eased by an End to the U.S. Embargo
By Steve Mercer, USW Vice President of Communications The aftermath of Hurricane Irma is simply stunning. So many of our Caribbean neighbors are facing so much destruction, including in Cuba where the full fury of Irma raked the northern coastline as a Category 5 hurricane that killed at least 10 people and flooded central Havana. […]
The European Union’s Uneasy Relationship with Science
By Elizabeth Westendorf, USW Assistant Director of Policy Last week, the European Court of Justice ruled that EU member states cannot ban cultivation of genetically engineered crops without scientific evidence of risk to human health. The ruling was on a case that dates back to 2013, when an Italian farmer wanted to plant biotech corn. […]
Congressional Support for U.S. Agricultural Export Market Development Programs
Legislation that would amend the U.S. Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to extend and expand the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, which are administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), has now been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The Cultivating Revitalization by Expanding […]