The Strait of Hormuz is again effectively closed despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Lebanon, as Iran announced Saturday it would reclaim control of the waterway.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials led by Vice President JD Vance are in Pakistan today in their second attempt to secure some type of longer-term agreement with the Iranian government. The two countries agreed to a two-week cessation of hostilities on April 7.
Global attention remains focused on whether two major trade lanes will fully or partially reopen this week.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump lashed out, threatening on his Truth Social platform “to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”
Read more in our Washington Week Ahead at Agri-Pulse.com.
Also of note: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says she’ll visit Arizona later this week as the department continues to assess the New World screwworm threat and whether the southern border can be reopened to live cattle imports from Mexico.
U.S. to mount ‘trade over aid’ push at the United Nations
The U.S. is planning the latest push in its effort to overhaul international assistance in what it is calling the “Trade Over Aid Initiative.”
Devex first reported last week that the U.S. has circulated a declaration of Trade Over Aid principles at the UN and is pushing other countries to join.
A State Department official tells Agri-Pulse in an email that the initiative will encourage “countries to make pro-business reforms.” The official said it will foster conversations between the public and private sectors and international groups to “attract investment and facilitate trade” and highlight stories from countries that have developed through “free market reforms.”
“This initiative is explicitly about the failed NGO 'development' sector,” the official said. “The best way to foster economic development isn't through handouts, but through sound economic policy and trade.”
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Take note: The official said the U.S. will continue to fund “lifesaving health and humanitarian assistance.”
Russia could soon expand fertilizer exports, state media says
Russia could soon capitalize on high global fertilizer prices by easing export restrictions that would allow more product to enter the international market, according to state media.
TASS reported Friday that the Russian cabinet is considering expanding fertilizer export quotas. Around 90% of domestic purchases have been filled, according to Russia’s deputy prime minister, leaving opportunities for exports.
Russia imposed quotas in 2025 to stabilize domestic supply. From December to May, it allocated quotas for more than 10 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizer and more than 8 million tons of NPK.
Importers in Nigeria and Ghana are already pre-purchasing Russian fertilizer for delivery in the fall, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Paul, Klobuchar push hemp safety bill in bid to avert national ban
An effort to preserve availability of pain-relieving hemp products for seniors, veterans and other adults is ramping up with a bipartisan Senate bill led by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul.
The Hemp Safety Enforcement Act would allow states to opt out of a national ban on intoxicating hemp products set to take effect in November, so long as they keep safety measures intact, such as a prohibition on synthetic cannabinoids that don’t naturally occur in hemp, according to Paul.
The bill is backed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. The goal is to attach the measure to an upcoming farm bill from the ag panel. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, also supports the measure.
Paul says the ban would destroy a multibillion-dollar industry built up after the 2018 farm bill changed hemp law. “Farmers are wondering whether they should plant it this year,” he says.
Mitch McConnell, the other GOP senator from Kentucky, argues the ban is needed to protect children, while Paul says public safety can be addressed “without trampling states’ rights or adult choice.”
Recreational hemp sales have been a boost for Minnesota breweries hurt by Trump administration tariffs, Klobuchar told reporters last week.
A “thoughtful discussion” about hemp standards is needed as opposed to wiping out the entire industry and leaving “senior citizens to find hemp gummies on street corners that are in the black market,” she says. “Not a really pretty sight.”
Lawsuit seeks East Palestine contamination information from USDA
A nonprofit watchdog group is suing the USDA for records on a 2023 Ohio train derailment, alleging the agency has withheld information about crop and livestock contamination from the disaster.
The Government Accountability Project filed a lawsuit against the agency last week alleging it has “failed to produce all non-exempt records” responsive to a Freedom of Information Act seeking documents illustrating the agency’s response to potential agricultural contamination, including testing records and communications between officials.
Remember: In February 2023, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride and other chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Some railcars burned, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air.
Cibus CEO optimistic about potential of gene editing
Gene editing is speeding the development of advanced traits that can help plants combat diseases and cope with a changing climate, Cibus interim CEO Peter Beetham tells Jeff Nalley on the latest Agri-Pulse Open Mic.
It’s also helping develop new traits that can help plants access nutrients. “In some cases, as much as 60% of the fertilizer the farmer would put on a crop does not get to where it needs to be in the plant,” Beetham says.
Employing the right genetics and the right traits allows producers to use less fertilizer without sacrificing productivity, Beetham says. “To me, that is something that will happen in the next few years.”
Beetham also discusses a case before the Supreme Court involving Bayer and EPA pesticide labeling, as well as regulatory developments in Europe.
Watch Agri-Pulse Open Mic at Agri-Pulse.com
Final word
“[Trump] thinks making Mexico and Canada be treated economically like Georgia and Alabama without them actually being committed, is a bad trade deal. I think it needs to be reconsidered and reimagined correctly. … It needs to be reimagined. It needs to be readdressed. There’s plenty of good in it, but there’s a huge amount of bad in it, and it needs to be reconsidered for the benefit of America.” – Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaking at a Semafor event on Friday on the forthcoming USMCA review.
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