§5674 Trade Consultations Concerning Imports

Summary

Before easing or removing any rule that limits imports of an agricultural commodity, the Secretary must make sure the Administrator of the Service and the heads of other relevant USDA agencies talk about it, including the Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Secretary must also talk with the United States Trade Representative before easing or removing any import restriction on an agricultural commodity or its product. The Secretary must watch whether World Trade Organization members follow sanitary and phytosanitary rules under the Agreement on Agriculture of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. If the Secretary thinks a country may have failed to meet those rules in a way that hurts U.S. agricultural exports, the Secretary must give the United States Trade Representative information about the situation. If the problem keeps hurting U.S. exports, the Secretary must report to the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, and to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and the Committee on Finance of the Senate that a country may have failed to meet the commitments and include any notice given to the United States Trade Representative.