119-s743

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 743 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 743

 To require the establishment of a joint task force to identify and 
 eliminate barriers to agriculture exports of the United States.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 February 26, 2025

Mr. Cassidy (for himself, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Boozman, Ms. Ernst, and 
Mr. Tuberville) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
 referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To require the establishment of a joint task force to identify and 
 eliminate barriers to agriculture exports of the United States.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Prioritizing Offensive Agricultural 
Disputes and Enforcement Act'' or the ``Ag Disputes Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) Agricultural competitiveness through access to 
 international markets is a vital part of the economy of the 
 United States.

    (2) A healthy, well-functioning, rules-based trading system 
 is the basis for the success of agriculture exports of the 
 United States.

    (3) When foreign governments erect trade barriers, that 
 makes it difficult for agricultural exporters in the United 
 States to compete in the global marketplace and undermines the 
 rules-based trading system.

    (4) Those trade barriers can harm farmers, ranchers, 
 workers, and businesses in the United States and can also lead 
 to higher prices for consumers and a less resilient 
 international trading system.

    (5) Dispute settlement is available to the President 
 through trade agreements with 163 countries, and there are 
 protectionist trade barriers to agriculture exports of the 
 United States in many of those countries.

    (6) Many of those barriers are systemically important. For 
 example, the use by the Government of India of unrestrained 
 price support programs violates the commitments by that 
 government under the World Trade Organization.

    (7) The Government of India recognizes that its price 
 support programs violate its commitments under the World Trade 
 Organization, so instead of reforming its programs, it has 
 repeatedly demanded an exemption from disputes for those 
 programs. Moreover, the Government of India has tried to 
 prevent discussions at the World Trade Organization of any 
 other significant agricultural trade issue unless it gets a 
 permanent exemption from disputes for those programs.

    (8) The Government of India has repeatedly raised its 
 minimum price supports, which has had negative effects on 
 several commodity markets and most notably has led to its 
 dominance of the global rice trade, with a 40-percent share of 
 the global market since marketing year 2020 through 2021. India 
 is also the world's largest producer of pulses and second 
 largest producer of wheat, peanuts, and cotton.

    (9) The United States Trade Representative submitted a 
 counter notification at the World Trade Organization in 2023 
 showing that price supports by the Government of India for rice 
 increased from 78.6 percent of the value of production in 
 marketing year 2014 through 2015 to 93.9 percent of the value 
 of production in marketing year 2020 through 2021, compared to 
 the limit at the World Trade Organization on increased price 
 supports of 10 percent of the value of production. That counter 
 notification also showed price supports by the Government of 
 India for wheat increasing from 77.7 percent to 81.3 percent 
 during the same period. Previous counter notifications have 
 shown similar violations by the Government of India for other 
 commodities. For example, in the marketing year 2016 through 
 2017, price supports by the Government of Indian were 67.9 
 percent for cotton, 31.7 percent for chickpeas, 41 percent for 
 lentils, and 47.4 percent for pulses overall.

    (10) Minor attempts to reform the agriculture subsidy 
 system in India in marketing year 2020 through 2021 failed to 
 produce results. Reforms enacted as a result of those attempts 
 would not have changed the policies that violate commitments 
 under the World Trade Organization, but would have merely 
 provided farmers in India with opportunities to sell their 
 products outside of the government-run mandi system, but those 
 reforms were ultimately repealed.

    (11) Dispute settlement is an effective way to provide a 
 neutral assessment of compliance with terms of trade agreements 
 and empower internal reformers who recognize a problem but have 
 not been able to overcome entrenched resistance.

    (12) Global agriculture is uniquely susceptible to trade 
 barriers and requires special attention to resolve myriad 
 systemic and economically significant trade violations that 
 impede the development of a resilient, sustainable, and rules-
 based agricultural trading system.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

 It is the sense of Congress that--

    (1) the President should accelerate efforts to address 
 foreign trade barriers that harm agriculture exports of the 
 United States;

    (2) the United States Trade Representative and the 
 Secretary of Agriculture both have a critical role in 
 developing agricultural trade disputes;

    (3) Congress and the private sector have key roles to play 
 in the development of disputes and agricultural trade 
 enforcement strategy;

    (4) in the case of price supports by the Government of 
 India, the President has exhausted other options available 
 through the World Trade Organization short of requesting 
 consultations under the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the 
 World Trade Organization;

    (5) there should be a plan and definitive deadlines in 
 place for a request for consultations and establishment of a 
 panel under the Dispute Settlement Understanding;

    (6) the United States Trade Representative and the 
 Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with Congress and the 
 private sector, should jointly develop a proactive enforcement 
 strategy for addressing systemic and economically significant 
 trade barriers in the agriculture sector; and

    (7) the Office of the United States Trade Representative is 
 the lead agency for trade policy of the United States.

SEC. 4. AGRICULTURAL TRADE ENFORCEMENT TASK FORCE.

    (a) Establishment.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the President shall establish a joint task force 
to be known as the ``Agricultural Trade Enforcement Task Force'' (in 
this section referred to as the ``Task Force'').

    (b) Membership.--The Task Force shall be comprised of the following 
members:

    (1) Employees of the Foreign Agricultural Service of the 
 Department of Agriculture, who shall be appointed by the Under 
 Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural 
 Affairs.

    (2) Employees of the Office of the United States Trade 
 Representative, who shall--
        (A) be appointed by the General Counsel and the 
 Chief Agricultural Negotiator; and
        (B) have appropriate expertise in agricultural 
 trade policy and trade enforcement.

    (3) Employees from other Federal agencies as determined by 
 the United States Trade Representative or the Secretary of 
 Agriculture.
            (c) Duties.--

    (1) In general.--The Task Force shall--
        (A) identify trade barriers to agriculture exports 
 of the United States that are vulnerable to dispute 
 settlement under the World Trade Organization or other 
 trade agreements to which the United States is a party;
        (B) develop and implement a strategy for enforcing 
 violations of trade agreements related to those trade 
 barriers;
            (C) identify like-minded trading partners that 
 could act as co-complainants or primary complainants on 
 disputes relating to specific trade barriers that are 
 systemically or economically important to the United 
 States; and
            (D) report to Congress pursuant to subsection
            (d) .

    (2) Consultation.--In carrying out the duties under 
 paragraph

    (1) , the Task Force shall regularly consult, to the 
 extent necessary and appropriate, with the following:
        (A) Relevant stakeholders in the private sector, 
 including the agricultural trade advisory committees.
        (B) Federal agencies that are not represented on 
 the Task Force.
            (C) Like-minded trading partners that are similarly 
 concerned with trade barriers and are potential 
 participants in a dispute settlement process.
            (d) Reports.--

    (1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
 the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently than 
 quarterly thereafter, the Task Force shall submit to Congress a 
 report on the progress of the Task Force in identifying and 
 addressing trade barriers to agriculture exports of the United 
 States.

    (2) Elements.--Each report submitted under paragraph

    (1) shall include the following:
        (A) The systemic and economically significant trade 
 barriers that have been identified by the Task Force.
        (B) A justification for including those trade 
 barriers in the report.
            (C) The progress that has been made in developing 
 dispute settlement cases and an assessment of whether 
 further information is required.
            (D) The current status of ongoing disputes and the 
 implementation of panel decisions, arbitration 
 decisions, or decisions by the Appellate Body of the 
 World Trade Organization.

    (3) Confidential information.--
        (A) In general.--The Task Force shall remove from 
 each report submitted under paragraph

    (1) any 
 information determined by the Task Force to be 
 confidential.
        (B) Briefing.--For each report required to be 
 submitted under paragraph

    (1) , the United States Trade 
 Representative and the Secretary of Agriculture shall 
 provide to members of Congress, congressional staff, 
 and cleared advisors a briefing on the information 
 determined by the Task Force to be confidential and 
 removed from the report pursuant to subparagraph
        (A) .

    (e) Consultations With India.--

    (1) In general.--The Task Force shall include as part of 
 the first report required under subsection
            (d) (1) a plan for 
 filing a request for consultations under the World Trade 
 Organization with respect to the price supports implemented by 
 the Government of India with respect to agricultural products, 
 which shall include other members of the World Trade 
 Organization that have been identified and approached as 
 potential co-complainants.

    (2) Elements.--The plan required under paragraph

    (1) shall 
 include--
        (A) specific claims that the United States Trade 
 Representative intends to make during the consultations 
 requested pursuant to the plan; and
        (B) a timeline for--
            (i) requesting those consultations; and
            (ii) requesting the establishment of a 
 panel under the World Trade Organization in the 
 event that the Government of India fails to 
 provide a satisfactory path to compliance by 
 the date that is 60 days after the date of 
 receipt of the request for consultations.
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