Representing the Big First District of Kansas means standing up for the people who feed, fuel, and clothe our nation. Two years ago, our country made a deal with China in which their government committed to importing $73.9 billion worth of United States agricultural products in 2020 and 2021 combined. China has failed to live up to that commitment by $16 billion, and this administration has made no effort to rectify the situation.
The Biden administration is hurting farmers, ranchers, and agricultural business owners in Kansas and across the High Plains by failing to hold China accountable.
The agriculture chapter of the Phase One trade deal addressed structural barriers to trade and aimed to support a dramatic expansion of U.S. food, agriculture, and seafood product exports, increasing American farm and fishery income, generating more rural economic activity, and promoting job growth. A multitude of non-tariff barriers to U.S. agriculture and seafood products were addressed including purchase agreements on meat, poultry, seafood, rice, dairy, infant formula, horticultural products, animal feed and feed additives, pet food and products of agriculture biotechnology.
Now that Phase One is expired, farmers and ranchers are frustrated to say the least. U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in an effort to reassure us, said, “Ambassador (Katherine) Tai, our U.S. Trade Representative, continues to converse with China about the necessity of living up totally and completely to the Phase One trade agreement, making up their deficit over the course of the next several years.”
This is unacceptable. “The next several years” was never part of this deal, which is not a complex one. China said it would purchase a certain amount of our agricultural goods and has fallen short by a margin that suggests that it never intended to live up to its end of the deal in the first place.
The U.S. must either force China to comply with their end of the agreement or punish them for failing to do so. At the very least, we need to see this administration developing a new, comprehensive, realistic deal to collect the deficit.
Agricultural business is a difficult and essential job in this country. The Phase One deal was a brass-tacks way of leveling the playing field on the international market and this administration is letting China take advantage of our country’s agricultural producers.
American farmers embody self-reliance, tenacity, and courage; the federal government must uphold and encourage these values by defending their interests in the marketplace.
U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann represents the First District in Kansas and is a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
