By Jeffrey Jones
The United States has free trade agreements (FTAs) with 20 countries around the world and those agreements have expanded export opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural producers. The pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, between the United States and 11 other nations, will provide even greater opportunities for exporters by reducing or eliminating tariffs on a host of food and farm products.
How can exporters learn more about those tariff reductions and the opportunities they create? Through the Foreign Agricultural Service’s online Agricultural Tariff Tracker. FAS initially developed the tracker in response to requests from those in the agricultural export community who wanted to obtain more detailed information about export opportunities resulting from FTAs. The tracker has already proven to be a valuable tool, but it just got even better – because now it includes TPP data.
Once the TPP agreement enters into force, exporters will benefit from a combination of tariff eliminations, tariff reductions and new tariff-rate quotas (TRQs), all of which can be tracked with the FAS online tool. As with other FTAs, the benefits of the TPP will increase over time, as tariff reductions are phased in. That means new opportunities for exporters. By providing tariff information in a user-friendly format, FAS hopes it can help exporters maximize those opportunities.
The online tool allows agricultural exporters and importers to search for product tariffs, TRQs and information on safeguards, which countries use to protect against import surges. The tracker also allows users to download and save search results to conduct further analysis.
The Agricultural Tariff Tracker will also help exporters identify new opportunities. The system simplifies the search for product tariffs so that exporters can make more informed decisions about the opportunities each FTA may have for their companies.
Source:usda.gov