Ag groups urge for U.S. involvement at WTO

President Trump has threatened withdrawal in the past 

Thirty U.S. ag groups are asking Congressional leaders to support continued membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Through a letter to Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, the organizations say the United States needs to be a leader in the WTO to maximize success for U.S. agriculture.

“Without the WTO, our country will lose critical market access for American food and agricultural exports, but more importantly, we will lose the opportunity to build rules that allow us to feed the world,” the letter says. “Challenges with the WTO’s functionality need not result in a closing of markets to U.S. food and agriculture goods, nor a crisis with the United States’ loss as a global leader within the WTO.”

The International Dairy Foods Association and the Corn Refiners Association led the coalition of ag groups.

Others include the American Farm Bureau Association, National Pork Producers Council, and U.S. Wheat Associates.

The letter also points to the success American farmers have experienced since joining the WTO.

“Since the United States adopted major WTO agreements in 1994, for example, U.S. agricultural exports have grown from $62 billion to nearly $176 billion in 2024,” the letter reads.

President Trump has threatened to withdraw from the WTO.

In 2018 during his first term, he told Bloomberg he’d remove the U.S. from the WTO “if they don’t shape up,” claiming the U.S. is always ruled against.

The president hasn’t indicated any intention to leave the WTO since his second term started, but some members of Congress are leaning that way.

On April 10 of this year, for example, Congressman Tom Tiffany introduced a joint resolution calling for the U.S. to remove itself from the WTO because it doesn’t punish China for the way it operates.

“The WTO has repeatedly overlooked China’s unfair trade practices and human rights abuses, undermined American farmers and manufacturers, and eroded our national sovereignty,” said Congressman Tiffany in a statement. “American trade policies should be made by American officials who are elected by American voters and accountable to American workers, not dictated by unelected international bureaucrats in Geneva. It’s time to pursue a better approach to trade – one that puts American industry, jobs, and economic independence first.” 

The ag organizations argue it’s because of China that the WTO needs the U.S. more than ever.

“Without a strong U.S. counter to China’s actions within the WTO, the organization and its rules risk being reduced to a vehicle for China’s continued economic and political growth internationally,” the letter says.