USDA Secretary Vilsack Highlights Ag Benefits from Extending PNTR to Russia in Testimony
In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on June 21, Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack expressed his strong support for ending the application of the Johnson-Vanik Amendment and authorizing permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) for Russia. “By not granting Russia PNTR,” said Vilsack, “U.S. farmers, ranchers, and producers will face an uneven playing field. Their competitors in the European Union, Brazil, Argentina, and World Trade Organization member countries around the globe will benefit from Russia’s guaranteed tariff treatment and obligation to apply science-based sanitary and phytosanitary standards.”
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Vilsack outlined several agricultural market access benefits of extending PNTR to Russia, and therefore benefiting from Russia’s WTO accession. Highlights include:
- Maximum bound tariffs on most cheeses will drop from 25 percent to 15 percent within 3 years of Russia’s WTO accession. Russia’s duties are already relatively low for many fruits and tree nuts, but those rates will be bound and, in many cases, reduced substantially within a few years of accession.
- Upon WTO accession, Russia will implement a U.S. country-specific TRQ of 60,000 tons of frozen beef with an in-quota tariff of 15 percent. The U.S. will also have access for high-quality beef outside of the TRQ at a 15 percent tariff.
- Russia’s WTO accession will lock in the current applied global TRQ quantities for frozen bone-in chicken cuts and increase access for both frozen boneless chicken and turkey (Vilsack said the U.S. provides 50% of Russia’s poultry imports).
- After full implementation of its WTO accession commitments, U.S. exports of combine harvesters and threshers will have a final bound tariff rate of 5 percent, down from 15 percent.