USTR's weekly trade calls keeping farm sector updated on progress

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives is holding weekly briefing calls for industry representatives on ongoing trade negotiations, in what many are seeing as the advent of a closer relationship between the private sector and the administration.

USTR has launched a weekly Friday call to brief industry advisers on U.S. trade negotiations, according to five people familiar with the situation granted anonymity to speak frankly about the private discussions. The calls, which were previously held on an ad hoc basis, they said, let USTR provide industry with details on the overall direction and status of talks and let attendees offer input and advice.

The calls include both career staffers and political appointees -- but not USTR Jamieson Greer -- and are attended by figures from across the agricultural sector and beyond, sources say. 

“There's a briefing about what's going on, and then they open up the floor for question and answer,” an industry source said, adding that the calls can be “humongous” with representatives from industries across the U.S. economy and interest groups. A call on Friday had more than 175 participants. 

USTR declined Agri-Pulse’s request to comment for this story. 

Multiple sources said that officials keep the briefings focused on the big picture of trade negotiations and don’t delve too deeply into product- and industry-specific negotiations around tariff or non-tariff barriers. Nonetheless, they argued that the increased willingness to engage with industry marked a welcome departure from the Biden administration’s approach to public relations.

“Having this weekly opportunity to ask questions to USTR is a big change,” a second industry source said.

Another person familiar with the calls argued that USTR under Trump is reverting to a more established relationship between U.S. industries and government.

“This administration has gone back to the way that the advisors have been used traditionally over the years – that the Biden administration did not,” they said.

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There are 26 advisory committees with more than 700 cleared advisors, according to USTR’s website, including several run jointly between USTR and the Agriculture Department – like the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee (APAC) and the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade (ATAC).

Congress established these committees in 1974 to help ensure U.S. trade negotiating positions reflected the country’s business interests. The committees are supposed to weigh in on negotiating objectives before the U.S. agrees to trade deals and further policymakers’ understanding of the potential impacts of proposed provisions, according to USTR’s website.

Biden did not negotiate any new comprehensive free trade agreements during his four years, but his administration did pursue multiple trade pacts without broad market access provisions, which they solicited industry input on – including the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity and a deal with Taiwan.  

Multiple sources noted that the new briefing regime from the Trump administration represents a significant uptick in business engagement from the last administration, both in frequency and substance. 

All of the cleared advisers are invited to attend USTR’s Friday calls, a person familiar with the situation told Agri-Pulse. One industry source told Agri-Pulse that similar meetings for cleared advisers were often canceled under the Biden administration or lacked substance.

“Sometimes it lasted 30 minutes and there was nothing to say,” they said. Meanwhile, some of the calls under the Trump administration so far have lasted well over an hour, they added. 

“These have been quite robust discussions,” the industry source added. 

The Biden administration did regularly convene the individual advisory committees, however. An agricultural advisory committee for trade, for example, met 13 times across the four years, according to a database maintained by the General Services Administration.

Even with the increased cadence under Trump, and the greater opportunities for the private sector to share their aspirations for U.S. trade policy, the administration has still kept the specifics of negotiations closely guarded. 

People familiar with the content of the calls all told Agri-Pulse that the cleared advisers did not know the final details of the U.S.-United Kingdom trade pact before it was announced earlier this month. At least one industry representative was surprised when their sector was left out of the final deal, after being under the impression that it would be included based on their conversations with officials.

Part of this secrecy may have been because the contours of the arrangement didn't come together until the last minute. Agri-Pulse understands that the final details of that U.K. deal were still being hammered out less than 48 hours before the deal’s announcement. The deal was also unveiled on a Thursday, six days after the Friday briefing. 

But USTR is also keeping the details of other negotiations under wraps. European Union trade officials told reporters this week that they have a much clearer idea of what the U.S. wants to get out of their negotiations, but industry sources say that USTR had not shared those asks with industry.

Details of the status of U.S.-China negotiations have also been scant. The two sides agreed to a 90-day pause on many of the new tariffs slapped on each other’s products after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Greer spent last weekend holed up with Chinese officials in Geneva, Switzerland. USTR officials only told industry figures during Friday's call that negotiations are ongoing and that non-tariff barriers are also in play as part of the negotiations, according to one attendee. 

“They're not tipping their hat too much at the details on those negotiations,” the industry source said.

U.S. agriculture has cause for optimism, however. Administration officials have repeatedly stressed publicly that increasing market access for U.S. ag products is a key objective of these trade negotiations. Industry representatives said that officials from USTR and the Agriculture Department are also making the same commitments privately.

Greater market access for U.S. beef and biofuel exports were some of the main asks in the first agreement that the unveiled with the U.K. and should be a part of every deal moving forward, industry figures say.

“Everyone I talk to is laser-focused,” an ag industry representative said. “Even if it's difficult – like with the EU – ag must be in scope.”

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