Office of Agricultural Affairs & Commodity Policy

Agricultural Affairs has overall responsibility for negotiations and policy coordination regarding food and agriculture. The office works with the Chief Agricultural Negotiator and other USTR officials as appropriate on agricultural trade matters. Specific responsibilities include: Free Trade Agreement and WTO negotiations on food and agriculture issues; operation of the WTO Committees on Agriculture and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures; addressing  barriers in export markets, including agricultural regulatory issues (e.g., new technologies, food safety, and other bilateral SPS and Technical Barriers to Trade issues); monitoring and enforcement of existing WTO and FTA commitments for agriculture (including SPS issues); and WTO accession negotiations on agriculture market access, domestic supports and export competition, and SPS matters. The office monitors U.S. implementation of U.S. SPS regulations and Farm Bill programs to ensure consistency with international obligations in the WTO and also is responsible for policy coordination of U.S. activities in agriculture committees of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

For more information on USTR’s Office of Agricultural Affairs & Commodity Policy, click here.