Bill Would Require Ag Market Access Comparison between U.S. and other Countries
The House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2017 agriculture appropriations bill directs the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by March 2017 to provide the panel with a report comparing overseas market access allowances for U.S. agriculture products with U.S. market allowances of agriculture imports, according to the committee report of the legislation (here). The APHIS study would also be required to contain information on U.S. export volumes and the quantity and timing of each pending market access request. “Increasingly, U.S. agriculture is facing non-tariff trade barriers, which are limiting the ability for U.S. agriculture to open and maintain access to key export markets,” the committee report says. “The Committee directs APHIS to review and update the list of foreign market access requests submitted by U.S. producers, producer groups, companies and/or non-government agencies.”
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Appropriators also want APHIS “within months” of the bill’s enactment to establish a prioritization process for the agency to review regions that have received APHIS animal health status recognition, and to describe the process to both chambers’ appropriations and agriculture committees, according to language adopted from the committee draft of the bill (here). Audits would evaluate veterinary control and oversight, disease history and vaccination practices, and surveillance practices in the country or region being audited, the bill says. Additionally, the bill, which House appropriators approved and sent to the House floor on April 19, calls for the Agriculture Department to continue efforts to reopen trade for poultry and poultry products with trading partners “to the greatest extent possible” after a recent avian flu outbreak cost the U.S. economy more than $1 billion, and for USDA to inform the House Appropriations Committee of future developments.
The report on the appropriations bill also directs the Agriculture Secretary to complete a two-year-overdue report on establishing an Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs position, after the examination was required by the 2014 farm bill, and the 2015 and 2016 Agriculture Appropriations acts. Furthermore, the bill includes language that would require the Agriculture Secretary to work with his Mexican counterpart to set up a working group to increase cooperation between the two countries on a number of commercial issues, including inspections, integration of producers in the supply chain, and improving border wait times and transportation costs.
Overall, the bill would provide $930.8 million for APHIS in fiscal 2017, a $36.4 million increase over the fiscal 2016 funding level, and $29.6 million above President Barack Obama’s requested funding level for next fiscal year. Next year’s funding would include $15.1 million for agriculture import/export operations and $22.1 million for overseas technical and trade operations.