The Trump Administration plans to attack overseas regulations restricting the export of GMO crops and other products of American technological innovation.
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer issued the previous at the first meeting of a newly created interdepartmental task force on rural America. President Donald Trump issued an executive order, creating the task force. The task force is to look for legislative, regulatory and policy changes promoting agriculture, including those ?advancing the adoption of innovations and technology for agricultural production and long-term, sustainable rural development.?
For decades, the United States has asked for international trade rules to be based on fact rather than prejudice. The agribusiness community often points to science-based regulation as a way of removing obstacles for the export of genetically engineered crops. While dozens of reviews concluded that GE crops are safe to eat, they still face significant public opposition in Europe and other places. USTR Lighthizer said one of the top priorities of his office is to remove trade barriers not backed by science.
?We are going to bring cases at the WTO and other venues, (and) we?re going to insist that any barrier be science-based. The United States will increase exports,? Lighthizer said.
Exports generate twenty-cents of each dollar of United States farm income. If other countries unfairly block United States exports due to technology, Lighthizer said, ?there is a reluctance to incorporate technology into our own production at home.?
United States officials routinely urge other nations to approve commercial sales of biotech crops. In the past couple years, China has been accused of dragging its feet on the approval of new United States GE strains. Corn prices in the United States fell when China rejected more than 1 million tonnes of United States corn because cargoes included an unapproved GMO variety from Syngenta.
United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue chairs the task force. Perdue said the task force will have four working groups and its members will represent 22 federal departments and agencies. Secretary Perdue gave the task force an October 22 deadline for report, an ?operational plan with proposals that can be put to work.?
United States Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Housing Secretary Ben Carson, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue sat at the head table for the first meeting of the task force. Deregulation was a common theme in their remarks.
