U.S. Wheat Associates Provides Comments on U.S.-Kenya Trade Negotiations
By Shelbi Knisley, Director of Trade Policy U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) supports free trade through multilateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements. USW works closely with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Services (FAS) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to ensure favorable terms for wheat exports in all trade negotiations. An opportunity to do […]
Effects of 1980 Grain Embargo Echo Through the Years
By Vince Peterson, USW President As a new decade and a new future for wheat export market development dawned in January 1980, the urgency facing the wheat-producer boards of both Great Plains Wheat and Western Wheat Associates could not have been much greater. They were under the strain of discussions and negotiations for months in […]
India Invokes WTO “Peace Clause” with Implications for Global Wheat Trade
By Shelbi Knisley, USW Director of Trade Policy India has invoked the “peace clause” on its domestic agricultural support limits for rice, by notifying the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it has breached its support limits. By claiming its subsidies are part of its public stocks program for food security, invoking the “peace clause” cannot […]
USMCA Moving Closer to Reality
By Dalton Henry, USW Vice President of Policy The U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA) is moving steadily, if somewhat slowly, to becoming an implemented trade treaty. Mexico’s government first ratified the agreement in June 2019. At the request of the U.S. House of Representatives, the agreement was revised and signed again by all three countries […]
An Invitation to a Stronger Relationship with Mexico’s Milling and Wheat Foods Industries
By Vince Peterson, USW President Today, I had the unique privilege to accept an invitation to the White House to represent U.S. wheat farmers, our state wheat commission members and U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) as President Donald Trump signs implementing legislation for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) into U.S. law (that’s my viewpoint at the ceremony […]
Wheat, Sorghum and Rice Growers Observe the Value of Food Aid Programs in East Africa
By Elizabeth Westendorf, USW Assistant Director of Policy Of the more than 1.9 million metric tons (MMT) of international food commodities the United States donated in 2018/19, more than 800,000 MT of it was high-quality milling wheat. Given the important role U.S. agriculture plays in supporting the neediest people around the world, farmers representing U.S. […]
USW Submits Trade Barriers Report with Additional Detail on China and India
By Dalton Henry, USW Vice President of Policy Each year, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) compiles and publishes the National Trade Estimates (NTE) report — a comprehensive report detailing barriers that U.S. exporters, including wheat farmers, face in markets around the world. The first step in compiling the massive report (last year’s […]
Revised China Tariff Quota Rules Could Have a Significant Impact on U.S. Wheat Exports
By Dalton Henry, USW Vice President of Policy While the trade policy headlines from the month of October have mostly been written about a possible “phase one” trade deal between the United States and China, much less has been said about the recently revised and published China Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) rules for importing wheat […]
U.S. Wheat Farmers Welcome New Chinese Imports, Hope for Long-Term Solutions
On Oct. 3, USDA announced that private exporting companies reported export sales of 130,000 metric tons (MT) of U.S. “white wheat” to China. That is welcome news for U.S. wheat farmers. Chinese imports of U.S. soft white (SW), hard red spring (HRS) and hard red winter (HRW) wheat classes to China were trending up but […]
Wheat Farmers Call on Congress to Pass USMCA Trade Agreement
The U.S. wheat industry is speaking out boldly on the need to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) this year. Speaking at a widely attended rally sponsored by Farmers for Free Trade on Capitol Hill today, Ben Scholz, a wheat farmer from Lavon, Tex., said agriculture and wheat farmers desperately needs a win in trade […]
