USDA prepares to unveil massive trade aid package

USDA prepares to unveil massive trade aid package

AgriPulse
By Sara Wyant and Bill Tomson

The USDA appears to be on track to unveil on Friday details of a $12 billion assistance plan for farmers hurt by the international blowback from President Donald Trump’s trade battles with China, Mexico, the European Union, Turkey and elsewhere...The assistance plan will be split into three parts, one of which is a Food Purchase and Distribution Program that allows the USDA to purchase surplus commodities that would have been exported if not for tariffs. The third part is a Trade Promotion Program, in which USDA officials say the department will lean on the private sector to help develop new foreign markets to replace the ones the U.S. is losing in its trade wars.