With a new federal administration in place, a former top trade official under both presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump is urging the almond industry to redouble its efforts to educate new administration officials and foreign leaders about how trade benefits producers.
Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, who was assistant U.S. trade representative for agricultural affairs from 2011-2020, said Trump’s return to the White House presents both challenges and opportunities when it comes to trade.
Free trade agreements developed in the 1990s and 2000s benefited the California almond industry, which last year exported nearly 2 billion pounds of nuts to more than 100 countries. The U.S. harvests about 78% of the world’s almond crop, and about 70% of that is exported.
But a “paradigm shift” in trade policy came with the first Trump administration in 2017, as the new president focused on domestic industrial policy and eliminating trade deficits, noted Lauritsen, now a Washington, D.C.-based agricultural trade consultant.
Now Trump is threatening steep tariffs on numerous countries that are top destinations for U.S. almonds, including China, Mexico, Canada and European Union members, as part of a larger strategy to generate revenue from foreign sources. Some lawmakers are also discussing an end to permanent normal trade relations with China, which were established in the early 2000s.
“U.S. agriculture will be hurt” if China retaliates by raising barriers to American farm goods entering the country, Lauritsen said in December at the Almond Conference, where she was part of a trade outlook panel.
However, the change in leadership also presents opportunities, including the use of tariffs as leverage to negotiate better trade deals and Trump’s preference for one-on-one trade deals with countries like the United Kingdom and Kenya, she said. It’s also an opportunity to set new parameters for the World Trade Organization’s dispute resolution process, which has broken down in recent years.
Make a list
Lauritsen encouraged industry leaders to make a list of priority issues needing to be resolved, educate administration leaders as well as career agency staff, and work directly with foreign government officials to soften any impacts from trade disputes.
“Put that list together and make it as long as you want,” she said, adding that information needs to be fact-based and define potential impacts in terms of value. “The USTR thinks in terms of money. They need to know the value of the problem.”
The Almond Board of California, a federal marketing order, has a team of representatives worldwide promoting the popular tree nut. The organization in 2024 secured $7.25 million from the USDA’s Regional Ag Promotion Program and Emerging Markets Program to help expand access in India, as well as explore opportunities in markets such as Morocco and Turkey,
Domestic policy initiatives are handled by the Almond Alliance, a nonprofit trade association made up of almond processors, hullers, shellers, growers and related businesses. Among the group’s efforts last year was to push for reauthorization of a trade preference program that allows products from developing countries to enter the U.S. duty-free to strengthen trade relations with the countries.
In recent months, the Almond Board developed a strategy which outlines potential tariff and technical barriers across various markets, identifying ways to bolster industry partnerships to increase market access, according to a board report.
Board representatives met with several international delegations, including a Vietnamese importer and processor team, a Pakistani delegation, the Turkish Nut Trade Association and a group from China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Though the Almond Board isn’t allowed to lobby, “our U.S. government trade experts see us as a partner for providing fact-based information,” Julie Adams, the board’s vice president of global technical and regulatory affairs, said at the Almond Conference. “We talk about technical issue impacts on the ground for our handlers and processors.”
About the Author
You May Also Like