USDA Misses Deadline to Outline Trade Function Reorganization Plans
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) missed an Aug. 6 deadline to submit a report to Congress on its efforts to reorganize the agency’s trade agencies and functions for agriculture imports and exports, a USDA spokeswoman confirmed. The 2014 Farm Bill…
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(here) mandated submission of the report 180 days after President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law in February. The law requires USDA to outline a plan for the establishment of an undersecretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. The position “would serve as a multiagency coordinator of sanitary and phytosanitary issues and nontariff trade barriers in agriculture with respect to imports and exports of agricultural products,” says the law. U.S. companies continue to face a raft of SPS issues, notably in the European Union, industry representatives say (see 14061128). "The department is approaching this report very thoughtfully and deliberately," said the USDA spokeswoman. "A potential departmental reorganization is very complex and we are determining how to approach that in a way that would best meet the goals laid out in the Farm Bill while continuing to accomplish all of USDA's duties." Meanwhile, USDA praised on Aug. 6 implementation of the legislation over the past six months, including provisions geared toward expanding U.S. market access abroad (here).