ag-trade

Nearly three dozen farm groups and agribusinesses announced a joint effort as the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba "that seeks the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and to advance trade relations between both nations.

Since joining the World Trade Organization 13 years ago, China has become the largest customer for U.S. farm exports, buying nearly $26 billion worth of goods in 2013.

India plans to challenge a World Trade Organization ruling that it unfairly banned imports of U.S. poultry meat as a safeguard against avian influenza, says The Economic Times, of India.

Katia Abreu, a former head of the largest farm lobbying group in Brazil, is the first woman to be appointed agriculture minister of the world's largest coffee, sugar and beef exporter, says Bloomberg.

The Agriculture Department distributed $200 million in cost-sharing funds to 84 organizations to promote U.S. farm exports and to build markets for the products overseas.

ADM, the world's largest corn processor, sued Syngenta in state court in Louisiana over cargoes of corn rejected by China because they contained an unapproved Syngenta variety, said Bloomberg.

China will reduce its tariffs on a range of Australian farm exports including beef and dairy as part of a free trade agreement, said Bloomberg. Australia said the trade agreement will give its products an advantage over competitors such as the United States and Canada.

One result of Russia's ban on food imports from Europe and the United States is a surge in interest in domestic food producers, especially organic farms, says the New York Times in a story from Moscow.

The chief U.S. trade official says there will be no major announcement in the next couple of days for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade group, says Reuters.

Seed company Syngenta faces lawsuits by at least 130 farmers in 13 states over its MIR 162 strain of genetically engineered corn, says DTN. A judicial panel in Charleston, SC, is to decide on Dec 4 if the cases should be transferred to a single federal court...

U.S. farm exports set back-to-back records, climbing to $152.5 billion in just-ended fiscal 2014, said the Agriculture Department, up 8 percent from the mark set one year earlier.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said "we do not expect to have a final agreement" on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact during a meeting of U.S. and Asian leaders in early November, said Kyodo news agency.

U.S. agricultural exports to the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks would rise by 5 percent over a decade if all agricultural tariffs and tariff-rate qoutas were eliminated, says USDA's Economic Research Service.

A face-to-face meeting of trade ministers from Japan and the United States "failed to reach a much-awaited breakthrough, seen as vital to advancing the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, at a three-day meeting on the...

The Japanese government tries an experiment in mountainous rural Japan to re-populate a farming town, says the Washington Post.

President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed by telephone to push for speedy agreement of a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership on trade, says the Xinhua news agency.

The World Trade Organization agreed with U.S. complaints and ruled that India's restrictions on imports of hogs, poultry meat and chicken eggs violate world trade rules.

Agricultural negotiators at WTO elected Vangelis Vitalis, the New Zealand ambassador, to chair ag-trade discussions, the WTO announced.