After lying largely dormant for the last few years, US trade policy is now back in the spotlight. In particular, concerns have been raised about our trade relations with Mexico and China, who together are the market for almost one-third of total U.S. agricultural exports. Given this recent scrutiny, I thought it would be useful to review the current state of trade in US agriculture.
For all the talk about the US trade deficit, agriculture is one industry where the US has a trade surplus - in FY2016, we exported $129.7 billion while importing $113.1 billion of agricultural goods. And despite a global slowdown in overall trade, US agricultural exports are increasing. In this coming year, this growth is expected to be led by increases in wheat and corn exports and an increase in raw soybean exports.