Last week U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the allocation of additional funding under USDA's Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, a key component of the Trump administration’s trade mitigation package designed to address the adverse effects of retaliatory measures impacting exports of U.S. agricultural products.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation is one of 48 organizations that will receive additional ATP funding through the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.

“While there has been progress in recent weeks in removing retaliatory measures imposed on U.S. red meat exports, the obstacles these products face in international markets are still significant,” says USMEF president and CEO Dan Halstrom. “USMEF greatly appreciates the Trump administration’s authorization of additional ATP funding - an investment that will help USMEF and other organizations defend our existing market share and develop new markets for U.S. agricultural exports.”

In May, President Trump authorized USDA to provide up to $16 billion in programs to support farmers, which is in line with the estimated impacts of unjustified retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods and other trade disruptions. ATP is one of three programs that will assist agricultural producers while President Trump works to address long-standing market access barriers.

“China and other nations haven’t played by the rules for a long time and President Trump is standing up to them, sending a clear message that the United States will no longer tolerate their unfair trade practices,” Secretary Perdue says. “At USDA, we are always looking to expand existing markets or open new ones and this infusion of money will do just that. American farmers are so productive that we need to continue to expand our markets wherever we can to sell the bounty of the American harvest.”

The 48 recipients are among the cooperator organizations that applied for $200 million in ATP funds in 2018 that were awarded earlier this year. As part of a new round of support for farmers impacted by unjustified retaliation and trade disruption, those groups had the opportunity to be considered for additional support for their work to boost exports for U.S. agriculture, food, fish and forestry products.

Sources: USMEF and USDA, which is solely responsible for the information provided, and wholly owns the information. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.