WASHINGTON — U.S. Agriculture Secretary-nominee Sonny Perdue said Thursday he will team up with senior U.S. trade officials in promoting the sale of American farm products around the world.
Perdue said he has had preliminary talks with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative-designate Robert Lighthizer about “the great opportunity they have to use the bounty of American agriculture to promote agricultural products and to sell those products around the world.”
“If confirmed, my first stop is going to be Mr. Lighthizer’s office door,” Perdue said at his Senate confirmation hearing. “We’ve already discussed some of this and he indicated to me that about 80 percent of what he heard had been about agriculture.”
Last week, Lighthizer indicated the United States will push Japan to further open its agriculture sector in envisaged bilateral negotiations, saying Tokyo will be “a primary target.”
Perdue, who served as governor of Georgia from 2003 to 2011, told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on Thursday that he would negotiate trade deals alongside Ross and Lighthizer, vowing to act as a “strong advocate” for U.S. agriculture.
“The relationship between the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and its trade representatives as well as the USTR as well as Secretary Ross and Commerce will be vital,” he said.
“Those really begin with relationships, I think, personal relationships.”
In a statement presented to the World Trade Organization on March 8, President Donald Trump’s administration accused Japan of maintaining nontariff barriers for its automobile market and imposing high import tariffs for foreign farm products.
Experts are closely watching whether the United States will demand a further opening of Japan’s auto and farm markets in a high-level bilateral economic dialogue, the first round of which the two governments have scheduled for April 18 in Tokyo.
The dialogue will be led by Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.
Officials have not ruled out the possibility of exploring a Japan-U.S. free trade agreement that would cover nearly 30 percent of the world economy.
==Kyodo
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