As the trade policy debate continues in Washington, recent releases by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) highlight the potential, barriers to, and impacts of trade. This is information important to framing the discussion about trade particularly as Congress considers when and how to consider trade promotion authority (TPA).

Reports from USTR are now available on both the President’s trade agenda and existing trade barriers facing U.S. exports.

U.S. exports in 2014 topped $2.35 trillion and supported more than 11 million U.S. jobs, according to the trade agenda report. Ninety-five percent of the world’s population and three-quarters of global purchasing power are outside the United States, and emerging economies are generating the world’s fastest economic and demand growth. For U.S. agriculture, exports generated 20 percent of farm income and accounted for a record $155 billion in foreign sales last year.

The barriers report is a technical supplement to the politically-focused trade agenda report, offering a country-by-country inventory of trade impediments identified by the U.S. government. These barriers include direct import policies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and export subsidies, all of which are on the table during trade agreement negotiations.

A separate release from USDA’s FAS looks at the state-by-state impacts specifically of agricultural trade. Each of 50 PDF fact sheets offers information about a state’s share of ag exports, top exports and benefits received by trade agreements already in place.

The trade agenda report is available here, and the barriers report is available here. The FAS fact sheets are available here.