Export Payment Assistance to U.S. Agricultural Exports, Year Ended June 30, 1963

Excerpts from the report: The United States is the world's leading exporter of agricultural products, accounting for approximately one-fifth of all farm products entering world trade annually. Despite the efficiency of American agriculture, U.S. exporters often have difficulty competing in the world market with the lower prices of some foreign products. This difficulty comes about largely because U.S. domestic prices for some price-supported agricultural commodities, particularly certain grains and cotton, are sometimes higher than prices of foreign competing commodities. In such instances, the U.S. Government may provide export payment assistance for both sales outside of Government-financed export programs (commercial sales for dollars) and sales under Government-financed export programs. This article reviews the magnitude of export payment assistance by commodity for the year ended June 30, 1963, and briefly summarizes the developments in export payment programs since the publication of the previous article on export payment assistance in the June 1963 issue of Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States