USDA's Mckinney to Lead U.S. Ag, Food Trade Mission to Japan

A trade delegation comprised of U.S. business and state government leaders and led by USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney will visit Japan June 11-15.McKinney comes off a China trade mission in late May where one of the issues on the table was getting China to lift its ban on U.S. poultry. The U.S. maintains China's ban – put in place during the U.S. outbreak of avian influenza – is no longer valid since it has been a more than a year since the last outbreak.The mission in Japan will focus on efforts to expand "export opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products," FAS said."Japan is already a top market for U.S. farm and food products, but there are many new opportunities still waiting to be tapped there,” McKinney remarked. “Japan is an import-dependent economy and its 130 million consumers have a real affinity for U.S. food products because of their quality, affordability and safety. I’m eager to return to Japan and continue exploring all the ways we can grow U.S. agricultural exports there."For the US, Japan represents "one of the most important and stable global markets for U.S. agricultural products, especially high-value goods," FAS wrote about the mission. And the U.S. "is already the country’s top supplier of imported food and agricultural products, enjoying a 25-percent market share."According to FAS, participants in the mission include leaders from the local departments of agriculture of American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Washington and Oregon.