General Overview

• U.S. agriculture looks overseas to expand sales and boost incomes. Expanding existing markets access and opening new markets will significantly boost U.S. agricultural export sales. After all, 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States. The United States is also the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world and is a highly competitive producer of many products.
  
  
• Exports of U.S. agricultural products also generate additional economic activity that ripples through the domestic economy. For example, U.S. agricultural exports of $62.4 billion in 2004 generated $162 billion in total economic activity on and off the farm. 
  
  
• Exports also mean jobs: jobs that pay higher than average wages and are distributed across many communities and professions, both on the farm and off, in urban and rural communities. Agricultural exports currently provide employment to nearly 1 million Americans.

• Dollar for dollar the United States exports more corn than cosmetics, more wheat than coal, more bakery products than motorboats, and more fruits and vegetables than household appliances.
  
  
• Twenty-seven percent of all cash receipts for agriculture come from export markets. Nearly half of our wheat and rice crops are exported; about one-third of soybean and meat production is shipped overseas; and 20 percent of the corn crop is exported.
  
  
• Since the mid-1980s, suppliers of high-value products have seen export sales outpace domestic sales by a wide margin. Today, for example, nearly 70 percent of U.S. cattle hides are exported.
  
  
• The export dependency of the almond industry is even higher, with about 67 percent of the crop shipped overseas. One-third or more of fresh table grapes, dried plums, raisins, canned sweet corn, walnuts and animal fats is exported.

The Importance of Trade to U.S. States

• Located in the grain and soybean belts, the Midwest states are generally the most reliant on export markets and their reliance is growing. The most obvious examples are Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska.
  
  
• A top supplier of fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, California's agricultural industry is more reliant on exports than the national average and its reliance is also growing. It is the largest exporting state by a wide margin.
  
  
• Washington State is highly reliant on export markets due to large fruit, vegetable and wheat shipments. Texas is another major exporting state.

Main Page: U.S. Proposal for Global Agricultural Trade Reform

Background on the current round of WTO negotiations

Last modified: Friday, November 18, 2005