Articles by Bill Tomson

It’s been a process years in the making, but USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is now proposing to give China, Vietnam and Thailand the green light to export catfish to the U.S., so long as the product comes from USDA-certified facilities.

The Trump administration today announced it is levying new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, escalating a trade war between the two countries that has hit the U.S. agriculture sector especially hard thanks to Chinese retaliation.

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee were united today in their demands that the Trump administration settle its trade battles around the world and start forging new free trade agreements.

Curious about how USDA came up with the payment rates for farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs resulting from the administration’s trade policies? The department today released the methodology it used to set those levels for the trade mitigation package it announced Sept. 4.

Argentina, in yet another show of good will towards the U.S., has offered to lift its longstanding ban on U.S. beef as negotiators for the two countries look for ways to bring down another trade barrier. Argentina’s ambassador to the U.S. visited USDA this week to discuss the process for lifting the ban, Argentine government officials told Agri-Pulse.

The Trump administration remains adamant that Canada shut down its Class 7 milk pricing program as part of an overall deal to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters today.

NAFTA talks between the U.S. and Canada broke off Friday afternoon with no agreement on how the 24-year-old trade pact will be structured in the future, and whether a revised agreement will include Canada at all, or just be a bilateral pact with Mexico. The U.S. said the talks will continue Wednesday.