Senate Agriculture Committee hears Luke Lindbergh on restoring U.S. farm export markets

At a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry hearing, Luke Lindbergh, President Trump’s nominee for Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, said he would make reducing the U.S. agricultural trade deficit his top priority if confirmed.

The position Lindbergh is nominated for represents U.S. agriculture in trade negotiations and administers export programs used by producers to enter foreign markets. Lindbergh told the committee he would begin “on day one” by laying out the trade shortfall and consulting farm groups about which markets and products to prioritize. “I would walk into my office, draw the number negative 49,000,000,000 on the whiteboard,” he said, and then “invite farm groups in from all across the farm economy” to set priorities.

Why it matters: Senators from both parties raised concerns about tariff-driven uncertainty, non-tariff barriers, and competition from subsidized or lower-cost imports. The committee members pressed Lindbergh on how he would work with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Department of Commerce and Treasury, and USDA programs such as the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) program to open and defend markets for U.S. producers.

Lindbergh described his background in trade and export promotion. He noted prior service at the Export–Import Bank of the United States and as founder and CEO of South Dakota Trade, which ran trade missions that used MAP/FMD-funded outreach. He said his work included meetings with foreign counterparts and that he had “conducted business on six continents.” Senator Mike Rounds introduced Lindbergh and recommended the nominee as “imminently qualified.”

Committee members cited specific market concerns: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (ranking member) and others warned that tariffs and retaliatory measures have hurt farmers who must decide planting and input purchases now. Lindbergh acknowledged short-term pains tied to tariff policy but said trade agreements and coordinated export promotion would deliver longer-term market gains. “We need to do big deals, little deals, medium deals, and all kinds of deals to make sure that we get that market access,” he said.

Senators pressed Lindbergh on several industry-specific challenges and USDA tools. He pledged to be an advocate in interagency trade discussions, to use the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and codex processes to press for science-based sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and to support export-promotion programs. He said he would work to keep programs such as the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAP) and MAP in place and to coordinate with USTR on resolving market access barriers for products including specialty crops, catfish, poultry, pork and beef.

On specialty crops and scientists who support them, senators asked Lindbergh to push back on staff reductions at USDA research and export offices. Lindbergh said he had worked with food-export organizations in the past and would continue to engage those partners if confirmed.

The hearing included extended questioning about China, the European Union and India as priority markets. Lindbergh said India and the EU presented significant opportunities, with India offering 1.4 billion consumers and the EU accounting for a large share of the U.S. agricultural trade deficit, which Lindbergh described as a priority to address through market access and trade agreements.

The committee did not vote at the hearing. Members entered letters of support for the record and said the hearing record would remain open for two business days. Lindbergh’s nomination will proceed through the committee’s normal advice-and-consent process; no confirmation or final committee action occurred during the hearing.