America’s farmers and ranchers are among the most productive in the world, and they depend on exports. Roughly 20% percent of U.S. farm income comes from agricultural exports, and those exports help to support rural communities across the country. However, foreign taxes on our agricultural exports are often very high, much higher than foreign taxes on other exports. TPP will open foreign markets to U.S. food and agriculture, providing new and commercially meaningful market access and advancing regulations that are transparent and based on science.

HOW TPP BENEFITS U.S. AGRICULTURE

• Eliminates foreign taxes in the form of tariffs on the vast majority of U.S. exports of food and agricultural products. For example, agricultural tariff rates average 19 percent in Japan and 16 percent in Vietnam. Some products have peak tariffs of over 300 percent or more.
• Provides new and commercially meaningful market access through significant tariff reductions or preferential tariff rate quotas for the remaining products.
• Requires TPP countries to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies.
• Discourages countries from imposing export restrictions on food and agricultural products as a means of protecting their domestic market from changes in the world market.
• Ensures food safety, animal health, and plant health measures are developed and implemented transparently and in a science-based manner based on risk, as we do in the United States.
• Works together in the WTO to improve transparency around the operations of agricultural export state trading enterprises and to agree on rules preventing them from receiving special governmental financing or trade restrictions on exports that distort trade.