Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
grown in the United States are being replaced on store shelves by imports—during the U.S. growing sea-
son. Retailers are always looking for new ways to lower costs, including sourcing produce directly from
the developing world.
Produce trade involves shipping by freighter from halfway across the world to U.S. ports. Some high-
value items, such as asparagus, raspberries, and cherries, are even shipped by air. International trade deals
such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and a raft of regional and bilateral trade pacts
have facilitated these surging imports. Trade in produce has grown faster than the trade of other agricultur-
al commodities because of the series of new trade deals.
The creation of the WTO in 1995 made it easier for countries worldwide to export fruit and vegetable
products to the United States. After the agreements enforced by the WTO went into effect, the number of
countries exporting the top fifty types eaten in the United States increased by a third, to 110 countries that
were exporting fruits and vegetables to the United States. In 2000, after the trade deal with China was ap-
proved, its share rapidly expanded. China is now one of the five largest exporters of these products to the
United States.
The GMA pushed for the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2004 to gain “new avenues for
imports of key ingredients for food processors” and promoted the Peru trade deal to get “access to duty-free
imports of seasonal vegetables.” 4 In 2004, the Chile free trade agreement went into effect, allowing Chile's
fruit sector to ship more grapes, cherries, peaches, and berries to the United States. The trade pacts with
Caribbean countries and the four Andean nations—Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru—also lowered
U.S. agricultural tariffs and increased imports.
American fruit and vegetable farmers are threatened by the rising volume of imported produce. This is
because the U.S. consumer market is the primary destination for American fruit and vegetable production.
Imports have displaced domestic production in the produce aisle and contributed to a decline in the number
of farms. Imported produce is more likely to have food safety issues than the domestic equivalent.
Rising imports are displacing domestic farm products from supermarket shelves. And as imports have
skyrocketed during the past twenty years, U.S. exports have seen minimal growth. Free-trade proponents at
the USDA promised U.S. fruit and vegetable growers that export opportunities would expand significantly
with new trade agreements. The reality did not live up to this prediction. American producers face growing
low-cost import competition, but any growth in exports never made up for the lost domestic market.
Instead, the United States has become a net importer of many commonly farmed—and consumed—fruit
and vegetable products. The USDA's promised balance between exports and imports was a mirage for
farmers. Food & Water Watch studied fifty products that grow in temperate or subtropical crops (such as
citrus fruits) that are cultivated commercially in the United States. Rising imports of these crops has con-
tributed to the decline in cultivated acreage for these crops in this country. The United States lost more than
a quarter million cultivated fruit and vegetable acres between 1993 and 2007, as imports of these products
nearly tripled.
Many free-trade proponents have contended that produce imports complement domestic production by
providing fresh items during the winter months, after the domestic growing season ends. This proposition
suggests that American producers are not displaced by imports because the competitive crops enter the
U.S. marketplace when farms are dormant. Of course, winter imports do compete head-to-head with the
winter fruit and vegetable production in Florida. After NAFTA and the agreements enforced by the WTO
went into effect in the mid-1990s, the majority of produce imports did enter during the winter. But now
imports that compete with domestic crops enter the U.S. market year-round.
Asparagus provides a telling example for other fruit and vegetable farmers. Proponents of asparagus
trade under NAFTA and the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement initially claimed that fresh asparagus imports
would complement the domestic production by providing it to consumers year-round. Instead, Peru grew
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