Trade Adjustment Assistance: USDA Has Enhanced Technical Assistance for Farmers and Fishermen, but Steps Are Needed to Better Evaluate Program Effectiveness.

摘要

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified relatively few commodities under its Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Farmers program, as reauthorized by the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009, but provided assistance to most individual farmers and fishermen who produced certified commodities and applied for assistance. Specifically, USDA certified 5 of the 18 commodities for which it received petitions. As of April 2012, USDA approved 9,852, or about 90 percent, of the applicants who produced a certified commodity to participate in the program. In addition, out of the $202.5 million in appropriations for the reauthorized program, USDA paid nearly $50 million in financial assistance to help producers implement long-term business plans in order to become more competitive.