Secretary Perdue Stresses Importance of Trade

A bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate last week that would double funding for USDA’s export programs.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue stressed the importance of trade at a recent gathering in Texas despite initial concern after the President released his budget.

“The first one is the Market Access Program. Those funds were not included in the President’s budget early on, but I think Congress understands the importance of those.”

The other program is the Foreign Market Development program.

Perdue said it’s a joint effort to expand trade.

“Those are really cost-sharing programs where usually the industry participates sometimes 50/50 or more with those programs for market access internationally.”

Perdue also pointed to the creation of an Undersecretary for Trade as another example of how critical exports are to American agriculture.