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Over the past 50 years, the US economy, including both agricultural producers and consumers,
have benefited greatly from an increasingly open, efficient, and competitive world market. In the aggregate,
US agricultural exports exceed US agricultural imports by as much as 40 percent, an indication that international
opportunities have been beneficial to US producers. Indeed, the value of US agricultural exports as a share
of gross cash income (not including government payments) has increased from less than 15% in the early 1960s
to more than 25% currently. US consumers have also benefited by having a wide range of
choices among goods differing in quality, price, and kind. About 20 percent of U.S. agricultural
production (in terms of value) is exported annually, and an increasing share of global agricultural production
is also being traded internationally, making trade policy at the national and international levels critical
to the flow of agricultural goods.
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