While speaking at the World Dairy Expo on Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said exports remain important to many segments of agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to look for new efforts to expand opportunities for U.S. farmers.

Although China has been a top market for U.S. agricultural exports, Perdue said there are a lot of mouths out there that U.S. producers can help feed. “We need to have risk mitigation for trade, and that means not just becoming dependent on China again but spreading that [risk] out to India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia” in new market opportunities for U.S. products, he said.

He praised the efforts of his trade undersecretary Ted McKinney as well as USDA’s Market Access Program to work with collaborators to discover and build other markets to diversify sales around the world.

“U.S. products still enjoy a great reputation worldwide for their safety, health and reliability. We need to go and expose to others and tear down wherever we can trade barriers that prevent our productive farmers from having access to those hungry mouths,” Perdue said.

Perdue expressed optimism in the recently announced agreement with Japan on agricultural tariffs and reiterated that passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is vitally important to U.S. agriculture. “This is an important bill,” Perdue said, adding that Congress is taking its responsibility seriously in addressing issues with the USMCA implementation bill. He said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been patiently addressing all the issues posed by House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.).

Related:Perdue talks lab-cultured protein

He said chapter by chapter, USMCA is undeniably a better agreement for not only agriculture but other industry segments as well. He said based on his estimation, it will gain a majority of both caucuses when brought up for a vote.

“I’m optimistic,” Perdue said of USMCA passage, with hopes that it will happen sooner rather than later. He said he trusts that Pelosi will bring it to the floor “very quickly.”