China will fully comply with its promises to buy U.S. ag commodities and the U.K. will be held to demands that it lift barriers on American farm products, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers Wednesday.

The European Union's plan to buy up skim milk powder and butter from European producers is spurring U.S. producers to join in protest with farmers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is taking fresh aim at knocking down the European Union’s efforts to protect food names like black forest ham, feta, gorgonzola, fontina, roquefort and asiago cheese.

The European Union and Mexico concluded the last outstanding element of their negotiations of a new trade agreement on Tuesday and plan to advance to the signature and ratification phases.

The United Kingdom, now free from the European Union, published negotiating objectives Monday for a free trade agreement with the U.S., and improving agriculture imports and exports will be key during talks that are expected to begin in the next several weeks, British government officials said.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is leaving a week of meetings in Europe with a sense of optimism about a potential trade deal with the bloc of countries there, but familiar issues will need to be addressed if there is to be an agreement.

The European Union has agreed to assure the U.S. gets the lion’s share of its annual beef quota after months of negotiations and more than 20 years of friction over the subject of non-hormone beef trade.

The European Union Court of Justice’s recent decision that new gene-editing techniques must go through the same lengthy approval process as traditional transgenic genetically modified plants has sent shock waves around the world and its greatest impact will be on those who are hungry and food insecure.