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Tuesday, 09 February 2010   |   Last Updated: 13 May 2009

 

Agriculture

AgricultureUSTR's Office of Agricultural Affairs has overall responsibility for negotiations and policy coordination regarding agriculture. Staff works with the Chief Agriculture Negotiator and other USTR officials as appropriate.

Specific responsibilities include Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and World Trade Organization (WTO) Development Agenda (Doha) negotiations on agriculture, operation of the WTO Committees on Agriculture and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, agricultural regulatory issues (e.g., biotechnology, cloning, BSE, nanotechnology, other bilateral SPS issues, and customs issues affecting agriculture), monitoring and enforcement of existing WTO and FTA commitments for agriculture (including SPS issues), and WTO accession negotiations on agriculture market access, domestic supports and export competition, and SPS matters.

The office monitors U.S. implementation of Farm Bill programs to ensure consistency with international obligations in the WTO, and also is responsible for policy coordination of U.S. activities in agriculture committees of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

 

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Softwood Lumber

Warehouse

Resolution Overview


Consistent with the terms of the Agreement, as amended, the United States and Canada will end a large portion of the litigation over trade in softwood lumber, and unrestricted trade will occur in favorable market conditions.

When the lumber market is soft, as it is currently, Canadian exporting provinces can choose either to collect an export tax that ranges from 5 to 15 percent as prices fall or to collect lower export taxes and limit export volumes. The agreement also includes provisions to address potential Canadian import surges, provide for effective dispute settlement, distribute the antidumping and countervailing (anti-subsidy) duty deposits currently held by the United States, and discipline future trade cases.

An industry-led bi-national working group will also be established under the agreement to discuss provincial policy reforms.