Page 28 - Export or Bust eBook

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., also cheered Trump’s apparent TPP turnaround. With the U.S. and China busy
threatening each other with retaliatory tariffs, he said the best recourse for the U.S. against Chinese
cheating “is to lead the other 11 Pacific nations that believe in free trade and the rule of law.”

Also, before Trump’s tweet on the TPP, there was a sense that the White House was noting the political
and economic importance of rural America and the disproportionate significance of the farm sector’s
record of consistently generating ag trade surpluses that benefit the U.S. trade balance.

Hopes were also raised that the farm sector’s major role in the U.S. economy would translate into White
House support for increasing rather than flat-lining or reducing funding for the two USDA cost-share
programs that, in partnership with farmer-funded checkoff dollars, have played a vital role in expanding
U.S. farm sales abroad: the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market
Development (FMD) Program.

Export promotion legislation

To support these programs, last September Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, introduced S. 1839, the
“Cultivating Revitalization by Expanding American Agricultural Trade and Exports Act.” Along with
the companion House bill, H.R. 2321, King’s CREAATE bill would steadily raise MAP funding from
$200 million for 2018 to $400 million for 2023. FMD funding would also double from $34.5 million for
2018 to $69 million for 2023. Under current legislation, combined MAP and FMD funding has
stalled around $200 million for years, coming in at $200.1 million for FY 2017 and $200.3 million
for FY 2018.

King and his five bipartisan co-
sponsors – Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; Joe
Donnelly, D-Ind.; Susan Collins, R-
Maine; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; and
Kamala Harris, D-Calif. – note in the
bill that “foreign competitors have
expanded agricultural export
promotion programs at a far faster rate
than the United States, placing United
States agricultural producers at a
competitive disadvantage in
international markets.”

The bill also states that between
1997 and 2014, the annual $200
million in MAP and FMD funds
“added an average each year of
$8.15 billion to the value of United
States agricultural exports, a total of
$309.7 billion in export revenue, or
15.3 percent of the total value of
United States agricultural exports
during that period.”

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