East Idaho Times

Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Finance Committee member John Thune (R-South Dakota), and U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Arkansas) have spearheaded a call for the Biden Administration to boost agricultural exports from the United States.

In a letter signed by 18 senators, including Marsha Blackburn, Ted Budd, and Chuck Grassley, the lawmakers expressed their concerns over the decline in U.S. agricultural exports. They attributed this trend to an ineffective U.S. trade strategy that fails to expand market access or address trade barriers adequately.

The senators highlighted the importance of international trade for the success of U.S. agriculture, emphasizing that diminishing access to foreign markets could have significant economic repercussions, impacting millions of American workers, farmers, and ranchers.

The letter posed specific questions to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, seeking clarity on the Biden administration's plans to increase agricultural exports in 2024 and its intentions regarding new free trade agreements for agricultural products.

The senators urged immediate action to reverse the decline in agricultural exports, emphasizing that the Biden administration must take proactive steps to prevent this negative trend from persisting.

The letter concluded with a call for prompt attention to the matter, stating, "A continued decline in U.S. agricultural exports is avoidable and unacceptable."