Ag Trade Deficit Is Decreasing For the First Time In Four Years

What’s being done to reduce the ag trade deficit?  USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Luke Lindberg addressed the topic at Thursday's Agriculture Outlook Forum.

“Working to fix the agricultural trade deficit, we actually ended the year at closer to $40 billion,” he said.

According to the Office of the Chief Economist, that number was actually $37 billion.  That's compared to a $50 billion Ag trade deficit for our nation to start 2025.  This would be the first decrease in that deficit in four years.

“The last three months of the year, we averaged A $700 million trade deficit as opposed to the $5 billion a month that happened in the first half of the year,” Lindberg said.

Lindberg noted there were several factors behind the shrinking trade deficit, including expansion of trade markets globally through removal of non-tariff trade barriers to U.S. Ag exports and greater recognition by market nations of the safety of the American food safety system.

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