§5674 Trade consultations concerning imports

Summary

The Secretary must require talks inside the Department of Agriculture before easing or removing any rule that limits importing an agricultural commodity. Those talks must include the Administrator of the Service, other appropriate USDA leaders, and the head of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Secretary must also consult the United States Trade Representative before easing or removing such import limits. The Secretary must watch whether World Trade Organization members follow the sanitary and phytosanitary rules in the Agreement on Agriculture from the Uruguay Round of GATT. If the Secretary thinks a country may have failed those commitments in a way that hurts U.S. farm exports, the Secretary must give the facts to the United States Trade Representative. If the problem keeps harming exports, the Secretary must report to the House Committees on Agriculture and Ways and Means and the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and Finance that the country may have failed and include any notice given to the United States Trade Representative.