Agricultural Subsidies

At a hearing of the Ways and Means Committee on pending trade agreements this week, Congressman Blumenauer asked whether American farmers require lavish taxpayer subsidies to compete in a global marketplace.

“I would like to focus on the role that agriculture will play in the future. If my Republican friends are serious about addressing spending and the deficit, and I think they are, we’re going to have to deal with the rather expensive support we provide to agriculture in this country,” Blumenauer began, pointing out several instances where subsidies on products such as sugar have hamstrung trade agreements at taxpayer expense.

“More recently, the American taxpayers are paying Brazilian cotton farmers $143.3 million a year because of our lavish domestic cotton subsidies have been found illegal which are illegal under our agreements in order to forestall retaliatory actions against our for intellectual property and other goods that would have been close to a billion dollars.”

Read more about Congressman Blumenauer’s Agriculture policy.