ARLINGTON, VA – The flagrant and rampant trade cheating of, and market manipulation by, India is nothing new to listeners of The Rice Stuff podcast, but with a renewed focus on the issues by Congress, it was time to talk India again.
USA Rice’s Peter Bachmann and DTB AgriTrade’s Craig Thorn joined Michael and Lesley to update listeners on legislation aimed at helping the U.S. government’s trade lawyers hold India and other bad actors to account.
“The Prioritizing Offensive Agricultural Disputes and Enforcement Act is a bipartisan effort to, among other things, create some accountability and metrics for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to deal with global trade issues that are negatively impacting American agriculture,” said Bachmann, vice president of policy and government affairs. “It’s very timely given what we’ve seen in the last few months with capricious Indian rice export bans that are wreaking havoc on world markets and having a devastating impact on food insecure nations.”
Also joining the podcast was Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) who, in addition to being a strong supporter of U.S. agriculture and rice in particular, is one of the cosponsors of the legislation.
“We asked Senator Cassidy about India, rice, Louisiana seafood, his relationship with Trade Ambassador Tai, his priorities, and his experience as the first medical doctor to serve on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in almost a century,” said podcast co-host Michael Klein. “We appreciated his time, candor, and of course, his advocacy on behalf of the U.S. rice industry.”
New episodes of The Rice Stuff are published on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and online at www.thericestuffpodcast.com.