Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 2/13/20

Peters on Wednesday talked up a bipartisan bill he's working on with Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) that would give the Commerce Department greater authority to "self-initiate investigations" to help less influential sectors combat potential trade manipulation.

"If you're a big industry — if you're the steel industry, for example — you can hire an army of lawyers and economists to push back against unfair subsidized trade by foreign governments," the Michigan Democrat said on a conference call with reporters. "If you're a smaller industry like cherries or blueberries or other agricultural products, that's very difficult."

In a letter to Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday, Peters called for an investigation into Turkey's tart cherry exports. He pointed out that shortly after the U.S. slapped duties on Turkish cherries in 2018, Brazilian cherry exports to the U.S. surged as much as 1200 percent — even though Brazil "does not appear to have a discernible tart cherry industry."

Ag inspectors coming in hot: Trump is set to sign separate legislation from Peters that would boost the number of agricultural inspectors and canine teams at U.S. ports of entry, a step that could help keep animal diseases like African swine fever from reaching the continent. The Homeland Security ranking member said there's a shortage of nearly 700 inspectors across the country, including eight in Michigan.

John Kran, legislative counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau, warned of the "huge, huge impact [ASF] could have on the U.S. pork industry should it make it into our country. Think about what that would mean to the American consumer looking to buy bacon or pork chops or ham or something else on the shelf."