Farm Groups Ask Administration to be Firm on WTO Issues

A coalition of farm groups recently wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack on challenges surrounding the World Trade Organization. The Hagstrom Report says those groups are pleased that Ambassador Tai gave strong statements on engaging boldly with the WTO. They want the Biden Administration to try and get the public stockholding and the special safeguard mechanism proposals at the WTO eliminated in connection with the upcoming 12^th Ministerial Conference. In a letter to officials, the groups said that the proposals related to public stockholding and the special safeguard mechanism are remnants of a negotiation that’s decades old.

The PSH proposal would significantly weaken the discipline process on domestic subsidies, while the SSM proposal will seriously limit U.S. export access to developing countries.

“Adopting these proposals will point the reform process in the wrong direction and doom future negotiations to failure,” the letter said.

The coalition includes the American Farm Bureau, along with crop, meat, and export groups.

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