[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2992 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2992

  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

           September 28 (legislative day, September 22), 2023

Mr. Cassidy (for himself, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Boozman, Mr. 
 Wicker, 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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