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Letter to the Hon. Robert Lighthizer - House Members Defend Agriculture in EU Trade Agreement

Letter

By: Rick Crawford, Bruce Westerman, John Garamendi, Jimmy Panetta, Ken Calvert, Joe Courtney, Greg Steube, Austin Scott, Dave Loebsack, Brad Schneider, John Shimkus, Darin LaHood, Susan Brooks, Roger Marshall, Brett Guthrie, Bill Huizenga, Jackie Walorski, Steve Womack, Doug LaMalfa, Jim Costa, Devin Nunes, Ken Buck, John Rutherford, Drew Ferguson, Abby Finkenauer, Steve King, Rodney Davis, Cheri Bustos, Jim Baird, Larry Bucshon, Ron Estes, Ralph Abraham, Fred Upton, Jim Hagedorn, Peter Stauber, Billy Long, Greg Gianforte, David Rouzer, Jeff Fortenberry, Sean Maloney, Anthony Brindisi, Steve Chabot, Warren Davidson, Frank Lucas, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, Jr., Dusty Johnson, John Ratcliffe, Michael McCaul, Will Hurd, Peter Welch, Bryan Steil, Glenn Grothman, Liz Cheney, French Hill, David Schweikert, Josh Harder, T.J. Cox, Scott Tipton, Ted Yoho, Mario Diaz-Balart, Rick Allen, Cindy Axne, Mike Bost, Adam Kinzinger, Jim Banks, Greg Pence, Steven Watkins, Jr., Mike Johnson, Dan Kildee, Paul Mitchell, Tom Emmer, Vicky Hartzler, Michael Guest, Mark Walker, Kelly Armstrong, Adrian Smith, Elise Stefanik, Chris Collins, Bob Gibbs, Anthony Gonzalez, Kurt Schrader, GT Thompson, Jr., Tom Rice, Louie Gohmert, Ron Wright, Jodey Arrington, Ben Cline, Dan Newhouse, Jim Sensenbrenner, Jr., Mike Gallagher, Tim Walberg, Angie Craig, Ann Wagner, Trent Kelly, Virginia Foxx, Mark Meadows, Donald Bacon, Antonio Delgado, John Katko, Brad Wenstrup, Steve Stivers, Tom Cole, John Joyce, Jeff Duncan, Phil Roe, Lance Gooden, Vicente Gonzalez, Michael Cloud, Suzan DelBene, Ron Kind, Sean Duffy, Jack Reed
Date: March 14, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs Trade Agriculture and Food

Dear Ambassador Lighthizer,

We write today to urge you to insist on the inclusion of agricultural products in upcoming trade negotiations with the European Union (EU). As you know, agriculture is the source of a great number of trade barriers and irritants in the U.S.-EU trading relationship. Thus, an agreement with the EU that does not address trade in agriculture would be, in our eyes, unacceptable.

The United States and EU share one of the largest trading relationships in the world, but there are many ways in which the two sides can further grow and improve this relationship. Nowhere is this more evident than in trade in agricultural products. Exports from hardworking American farmers and ranchers across the country face barriers to the EU market, including high tariffs, unscientific sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and protectionist policies on geographical indications that hurt American exports not only to the EU but also to countries all over the world.

We were encouraged to see that the negotiating objectives for the EU that your office released in January included specific objectives on agricultural goods. At the same time, we were deeply disappointed that the European Commission's draft negotiating mandates specifically excluded agricultural products and that Commission officials continue to state publicly that they will not discuss agriculture in the negotiations.

We want to voice our strong support for the inclusion of agriculture in the upcoming discussions and to reiterate that an agreement that fails to include agricultural products would be deficient, significantly jeopardizing Congressional support.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,


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