Krishnamoorthi, Brown Write to Acting Secretary of Agriculture Regarding Contingency Plans in Case of Retaliatory Trade Actions By the PRC

February 11, 2025
Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Congresswoman Shontel Brown (D-OH), Vice Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee and a member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the CCP, sent a letter to Acting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Gary Washington requesting information on the steps being taken to protect farmers and ranchers if the Chinese Communist Party takes retaliatory agricultural trade actions against the United States. 

In the letter, the members write, “We must prepare for a scenario where the PRC enacts retaliatory trade measures that could lead to supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and a currency war with [the PRC]. The PRC has the ability to cause true pain to our hard-working farmers and ranchers. Small farmers may be forced to shut down business. Local ranchers may have to seek unemployment. We owe it to American farmers and ranchers to be ready for all scenarios.”

The letter also takes note of “the bold steps the Biden Administration took to level the playing field for American workers, including through robust export promotion support and market access programs. . . [T]he PRC has caused great harm to American workers, and we must continue robustly pushing back against these unfair practices.”

Answers to the following questions, along with a briefing, are requested by no later than March 31, 2025.

  1. To what extent are the Department’s agricultural support activities like ARC, PLC, and FSA equipped to support American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers during a U.S.-PRC trade conflict?
  2. How is the Department interacting with the interagency to prepare for PRC retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. agricultural industry?
  3. What efforts is the Department pursuing to engage multilaterally with other major agricultural exporters to coordinate our approach to address unfair PRC trade practices and lessen the impact of PRC economic coercion?
  4. How does the Department assess the impact of PRC retaliatory agricultural tariffs on food supply chains, PRC sourcing of key agricultural goods from non-U.S. markets, and prices?

The full letter can be viewed here. 

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