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