During testimony on Capitol Hill last week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a reduction in the agricultural trade deficit and we caught up with Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg to learn more.
Under Secretary Lindberg said, “So I have been, since the time I was nominated for this role, highly focused on moving the trade deficit back towards the benefit of American farmers and ranchers. If you look at it, the U.S. has historically exported vastly more agricultural products every year than we’ve imported. We’ve typically had that trade surplus, which benefits our farmers and ranchers, meaning we’re winning in the global marketplace. Unfortunately, this time last year, when the president started, we were facing a $50 billion trade deficit. Now, today, the deficit is reduced to $29 billion, 42% drop in one year.”
“It’s not our goal. Our goal is still to get to a surplus, but we are making material progress, and that really is helping our farmers to diversify their products. We’re seeing lower value imports in the U.S., a lower total value dollar of imports coming in, which means they’re actually winning at home and abroad. So net-net across the board, the trade policy of the Trump administration is beginning to take a material reduction in that trade deficit, and we’re seeing farmers and ranchers winning again around the world,” said Lindberg.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.