USDA Announces Trade Mitigation Programs

On August 27, 2018, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the USDA is authorizing up to $12 billion in trade mitigation programs, which is directly in line with the estimated impact of tariffs on U.S. agriculture. The department will be using three programs to facilitate this mitigation:

• The Market Facilitation Program
• The Food Purchase and Distribution Program, and
• The Agricultural Trade Promotion Program

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will administer the Food Purchase and Distribution Program to purchase up to $1.2 billion in commodities. The specific commodities to be purchased are those impacted by unjustified tariffs imposed by other nations.

Amounts to be purchased are based on an economic analysis of the damage caused by tariffs illegally imposed on these crops by some U.S. trade partners. The chart below sets forth the commodities that will be purchased by AMS through the Food Purchase and Distribution Program.

Purchases will be spread over several months.  USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service will distribute these commodities through nutrition assistance programs such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program and child nutrition programs.

For details on purchases as they happen, see the AMS webpage, Purchase Programs: Solicitations and Awards.

For more information, visit USDA’s Selling Food to USDA page.