THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2025 41 dairy, egg, chicken, and turkey products in order to guarantee profit margins for a tiny number of Canadian producers, while leaving the rest of the Canadian agricultural sector subject to the vicissitudes of competitive markets. But this is not the only “philosophical” trade barrier we deal with overseas. FAS also wages something akin to a crusade on behalf of U.S. food and agricultural products derived from advanced breeding techniques. A number of our trade partners use consumers’ inchoate fears and misunderstanding of emerging agricultural technologies to justify protectionist trade barriers on genetically engineered or gene-edited products. FAS champions innovation and peer-reviewed scientific research to make sure U.S. producers have technological tools available to adapt to changing An importer with industrial bales of U.S. cotton at a Koreanowned cotton yarn spinning facility in Costa Rica, 2023. The author’s work to reduce inspection rates for U.S. cotton shipments into Costa Rica made U.S. cotton shipments more profitable. COURTESY OF EVAN MANGINO
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=