American specialty crop growers — farmers who produce fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, and similar products — face trade barriers from foreign countries that can be hard to track and even harder to fight. This bill would require the USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative to publish an annual report identifying foreign tariffs, quotas, and non-tariff barriers that hurt U.S. specialty crop exports, estimating how much those barriers cost American farmers, and detailing what the government is doing about them. The public and industry advisory committees would get a chance to weigh in before each report is finalized.
Congressional Summary
Specialty Crops Reporting on Opportunities and Promotion Act of 2026 or the Specialty CROP Act of 2026This bill expands the annual reporting requirements for the Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops program to require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide specific information on the competitiveness of U.S. exports of specialty crops.Specifically, the bill modifies the requirements for a congressionally mandated annual report on U.S. specialty crop trade issues to require USDA to report specific information on acts, policies, and practices of foreign countries that constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of specialty crops.Further, USDA must consult with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on the report. Before preparing the report, USDA, in coordination with the USTR, must seek comments from the public and the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Fruits and Vegetables.Under the bill, USDA must submit the report to Congress in an unclassified form, but may include a classified annex. The unclassified portion of the report must be publicly available.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-02-25
- Date Added
- 2026-04-09