overview
Trade is essential to the U.S. agricultural sector, with earnings from U.S. exports accounting for 20 percent to 30 percent of total farm income. In addition to farm income, trade is influenced by commodity and food prices and food variety.

U.S. and global trade are greatly affected by the growth and stability of world markets. Changes in population, economic growth, and worldwide income are most likely to alter world food demand. Other important factors affecting trade are global supplies and prices, changes in exchange rates, government support of agriculture, and trade protection policies.

contents

• U.S. agricultural trade
• Global agricultural trade

features
U.S. Agricultural Trade Update is an electronic release announcing monthly U.S. agricultural exports and imports. More detailed monthly and annual U.S. trade data by country and commodity is found on the Foreign Agricultural Service's U.S. trade site or in ERS' historical summary spreadsheets.

Supplementary periodic trade articles associated with the Update series summarize U.S. agricultural trade and cover topics, such as:

• U.S. exports by State
  
• Effects of trade on the U.S. economy
  
• Exports' share of U.S. production
  
• Imports' share of U.S. consumption
  
• Exchange-rate competitiveness of U.S. exports
  
• U.S. export penetration in world markets
  
• Bulk versus high-value U.S. exports
  
• Top-ranked U.S. agricultural trading partners
  
• Top-ranked U.S. commodities traded
• U.S. agricultural trade balance
  

recommended readings
Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade summarizes USDA's most recent 1-year projections for U.S. agricultural trade value and volume, as well as projections of selected countries' total trade with the United States.

Global Trade Patterns in Fruits and Vegetables examines the domestic markets and trade experiences of major fruit and vegetable traders to better understand the economic and institutional factors affecting trade. With major advances in produce handling and transport, combined with trade agreements and changing consumers preferences as incomes rise, a more global market is providing consumers with greater year-round variety.

U.S. Agriculture and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) examines the free trade area under negotiation among the United States and 33 countries in the Western Hemisphere. The FTAA will progressively liberalize trade and investment in the region, leading to an estimated 6-percent increase in annual U.S. agricultural exports to the Hemisphere and a 3-percent increase in annual U.S. agricultural imports from the Hemisphere.

See all recommended readings...

recommended data products
Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS) provides U.S. agricultural exports and imports, volume and value, by country, by commodity, and by calendar year, fiscal year, and month, for varying periods, such as 1935 to the present or 1989 to the present. Updated monthly or annually.

State export data provides annual ERS estimates of U.S. exports by State and commodity group based on each State's share of U.S. agricultural production—by State production data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service—and national level U.S. export data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Production, Supply, and Distribution (PS&D;) contains official USDA data on production, supply, and distribution of agricultural commodities for the United States and major importing and exporting countries. The database provides projections for the coming year and historical data for more than 200 countries and major crop, livestock, fishery, and forest products.

Agricultural Market Access Database (AMAD) provides data and information on WTO member countries regarding tariff schedules, tariff bindings, applied tariff rates, import quantities, notifications to the WTO on countries' commitments, and other data useful in analyzing market access issues in agriculture.

The ERS Agricultural Exchange Rate Data Set contains annual and monthly data for exchange rates important to U.S. agriculture. It includes both nominal and real exchange rates for 80 countries (plus the EU) as well as real trade-weighted exchange rate indexes for many commodities and aggregations.

recent research developments
WTO: Competing Policy Issues and Agendas for Agricultural Trade, a conference on September 17, 2003, brought together researchers, policymakers, and industry representatives. Sponsored by ERS and the Farm Foundation, the conference addressed trade policy issues and their implications. In addition to the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, other trade policy developments such as the proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements and enlargement of the European Union are likely to have lasting impacts on agricultural producers, consumers, industry, and global food markets.

questions and answers
Frequently asked questions and answers about the type of trade data ERS provides for other countries of the world and where data on world trade and bilateral country commodity trade data can be obtained.

related links
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
provides global agricultural trade by country.

U.S. International Trade Commission provides information on U.S. tariffs and U.S. trade data by HTS code, Customs District, and month.

Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce provides a description of total U.S. trade and export classification.

See all related links...

for more information, contact: Carol Whitton
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: June 3, 2004