ARLINGTON, VA. — Fifty-two agricultural trade groups urged Congress to expand US food and agriculture products globally by establishing new Trade Promotion Authority. In a joint letter sent on March 16, the coalition said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts that the United States will run a food and agriculture trade deficit of $14.5 billion in 2023, which should be a “wake-up call” to the nation’s declining global economic influence.

“Agriculture-related industry is a driver of the American economy, but it is being thwarted by barriers to market access,” the letter said. “With 95% of the world’s consumers overseas, the advantages of being the world’s most efficient and sustainable agricultural system are not being fully realized.”

The groups noted in the letter that over 1 million jobs exist through agriculture trade, and around 750,000 of those jobs are off-farm.

While the United States boasts of a strong agriculture, the coalition said the nation’s market access is trailing behind that of other countries.

“Between 2010 and 2020, China and the European Union enjoyed over twice as much advantage from trade agreement tariff reductions as the US,” the letter said. “In this decade, our situation to date is far worse. The US has not implemented a comprehensive trade agreement that opens new markets in over a decade. Meanwhile, just over a year ago, China added the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to its portfolio of trade agreements and displaced the US as the European Union’s largest trading partner.”

Among those to sign the letter are the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USPEEC), North American Meat Institute (NAMI), American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and National Turkey Federation (NTF).