Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward MageeNews.com a small commission – at no extra cost to you.
Brexit Creates Opportunities to Export Mississippi Rice to United Kingdom, Senators Assert
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today encouraged the Trump Administration to promote increased market access for U.S.-grown rice in trade agreement negotiations with the United Kingdom (U.K.).
The Mississippi Senators are among a group of Senators from rice-producing states who have signed a letter that encourages U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer “to take advantage of the rice demand in the U.K. to achieve increased market access for U.S.-grown rice through your upcoming negotiations.”
“Given market demand and existing relationships with Britain’s importers, the U.S. rice industry stands ready to regain significant market share through these negotiations. Restoring this important export market would have a remarkably positive economic impact throughout rice country, which, like the rest of the agricultural economy, has been struggling in recent years,” the Senators wrote in the letter.
In the wake of the recent U.K. exit from the European Union (EU), the Trump administration has set a goal to negotiate a new trade agreement with the U.K. by the end of the year. For more than a decade, the EU severely limited market access for U.S.-grown rice. Prior to 2007, the U.K. was one of the largest export destinations for American rice.
A copy of the signed letter is available here.