{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-statement-at-ustr-nomination-hearing", "Crapo Statement at USTR Nomination Hearing", "2022-07-28", "2022", "2022-07", "Republican", "Senate", "ID", "Mike Crapo", "C000880", "www.crapo.senate.gov", "crapo", "https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, delivered the following remarks at hearing to consider the nomination of Douglas J. McKalip, for U.S. Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator.\n\nThe text of Ranking Member Crapo\u2019s remarks, as prepared, is below.\n\n\u201cThank you, Senator Wyden.\n\n\u201cWelcome, Mr. McKalip, and congratulations on your nomination. I took the opportunity to listen to your band Box Cartel. You\u2019re hitting the right notes there. With your trade policy experience, I hope that\u2014if confirmed\u2014you\u2019ll also the right hit notes on improving opportunities for our farmers and ranchers.\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s farmers continue to prove their resilience and productivity every day, and will keep doing so. But\u2019s it not easy. Americans are painfully aware that gas prices are up 42 percent from a year ago. What fewer people may know is that the price for diesel rose by an even greater margin\u201468 percent. This hits our farmers hard.\n\n\u201cBack in March, a fourth generation farmer in Meridian, Idaho explained that the cost of filling up his tractor had doubled in a year to $800. However, one bright factor for America\u2019s farmers right now is exports with sales of agricultural products overseas reaching $177 billion in 2021. America\u2019s farmers sell more high quality products to consumers around the world than ever before.\n\n\u201cIn Idaho, if we kept what our 24,000 farms produced within the state, each Idahoan would have to eat 209 slices of bread, 40 potatoes, 3 pounds of sugar, 2 pounds of cheese, 2 pounds of beef and a cup of beans\u2014every single day. Fortunately, Idaho\u2019s agricultural products also feed the nation and the world, exporting one of every six rows of Idaho potatoes and 50 percent of Idaho\u2019s wheat.\n\n\u201cNationally, one in three acres planted in the United States will be exported. But we can sell even more. What is holding us back is, again, a misplaced Biden Administration policy: a moratorium on new trade agreements, and limited enforcement of existing agreements.\n\n\u201cThe Administration is crystal clear that it prefers to not pursue real trade agreements in favor of something it calls \u2018frameworks,\u2019 which lack crucial market access obligations.\n\n\u201cThis is confusing, since market access is the main problem our farmers and ranchers face. A lot of our potential trading partners maintain high agricultural tariffs and regulatory measures that are essentially a guise for protectionism. We need to tear them down.\n\n\u201cFor example, India applies an average agricultural tariff of 36 percent. It also applies a number of non-science based restrictions on U.S. agriculture, such as unreasonable GMO certifications on apples, potatoes, soybeans, wheat and other crops.\n\n\u201cIf America wants to sell crops in India, these are exactly the types of issues that must be addressed. Moreover, the need to find new markets is particularly compelling because we must diversify our customer base.\n\n\u201cChina is currently our largest agricultural export destination. But, we need new markets to reduce our dependency and increase our leverage. Securing these markets will require more than frameworks where government officials can just talk.\n\n\u201cIt requires binding commitments that ensure our farmers can sell. Put plainly, our farmers and ranchers deserve our trading partners\u2019 markets to be as open to our commerce as ours is to theirs. Hopefully, we can start a conversation today on how to apply our nominee\u2019s experience and talents toward that goal.\n\n\u201cWith that, I look forward to hearing the nominee\u2019s testimony and his responses to our questions. I also look forward to the nominee\u2019s next album when that comes out.\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:49:02Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-statement-at-ustr-nomination-hearing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.072647912427783, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}