Interview with Under Secretary Luke Lindberg

On September 9th, Amb. Brian McFeeters (ret.) had the pleasure of meeting with newly confirmed Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg.  

Under Secretary Lindberg outlined his priorities for addressing the $50 billion agricultural trade deficit, strengthening partnerships through USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, and expanding opportunities in key growth areas such as protein, biofuels, and halal-based foods. 


Ambassador Brian McFeeters 
To start, I’d like to reference the tagline on your board ($50 billion agricultural trade deficit), which clearly states your priority. Perhaps the best way to begin is with an opening from you about your new role as Under Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Congratulations on your recent confirmation. I think it would be helpful for our member companies to hear about your priorities—at whatever level of detail you’d like—and how you view the role of public-private partnership. 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

Thank you. When President Trump nominated me for this role, he wrote in a Truth Social post that he was charging me with securing “smart trade deals” for America’s farmers and ranchers. I’ve taken that as my North Star. 

The President has been very clear about the America First trade agenda: we believe trade should be balanced. If we are going to trade with partners, both sides should benefit. Through that, we can create greater prosperity here in America. 

In agriculture, though, we’ve seen a concerning shift. For decades, the U.S. consistently enjoyed robust agricultural trade surpluses with the rest of the world, including the ASEAN region. But today, we are facing a $50 billion agricultural trade deficit globally. To me, that is unacceptable. Our farmers and ranchers produce the highest-quality, safest, most affordable, and most abundant food supply in the world. Yet somehow, we are losing ground, including in ASEAN, where in 2021 our agricultural trade balance turned negative for the first time. 

We are working to reverse that trend by identifying markets and opportunities where we can share our abundance with the world. Importantly, this is a farmer-driven approach. One of the strengths of American agriculture is that our farmers themselves make the decisions about what to plant, how to cultivate, and where to sell. They are supported by agribusinesses that handle supply chain management, logistics, and distribution—creating an incredible ecosystem. The government’s role is more of a facilitator. 

What I hear time and again from foreign buyers is that they don’t want to hear from me about how great our soybeans or corn are. They want to meet directly with our farmers and ranchers, to see how crops are raised, to learn about stewardship of the land, and to hear the stories behind the food they’re purchasing. Our farmers are our greatest salespeople. When people buy products, they want to buy from someone they know and trust. 

At USDA, we are committed to bringing willing buyers and willing sellers together. That personal connection is a key differentiator for American agriculture, and I believe it will play a central role in how we address the $50 billion trade deficit. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

That’s a great way to start. I know your role covers the world, while we, as a trade association, focus on ASEAN. That doesn’t mean our conversation needs to be restricted to ASEAN, but you mentioned that the U.S. once had a trade surplus with the region, which shifted in 2021. I have to admit, I wasn’t aware of that until you said it, and I’m not sure many of our members are either. Could you share more about what happened there? Was it a matter of another country stepping in, or is there more we should understand about why that change occurred? 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

If you look at the data, our agricultural exports to ASEAN have essentially flatlined since 2021—they’ve stayed relatively steady. At the same time, imports from ASEAN into the United States have increased, which has widened the gap and shifted our balance from surplus to deficit. 

At its core, I see trade in three main steps, and I think in ASEAN, we’ve fallen short in some areas. 

First, you need a fair trade deal—something that sets the rules of the road, the “balls and strikes,” as we’d say in American terms. President Trump has made this a personal priority. He’s been directly engaged with ASEAN leaders and others globally to renegotiate terms that strengthen opportunities for American agriculture and other industries. Frankly, there may be no issue he’s more personally involved in right now than trade. 

 Second, once you have a fair deal in place, USDA plays a central role in relationship-building. Through our Foreign Agricultural Service, we have people on the ground every day in markets around the world, including ASEAN, building connections and staying close to consumers. We also conduct trade missions abroad and host reverse trade missions in the U.S. This is about creating long-term, sustainable opportunities by putting willing buyers and willing sellers together. 

Third, there’s the “good hygiene” of trade agreements—careful stewardship and accountability. It’s not enough to sign a deal; both sides must live up to their commitments. Too often, what undermines our producers isn’t tariffs, but non-tariff barriers—things that may be hard to spot but put U.S. farmers at a disadvantage. Listening closely to businesses on the ground is critical to identifying these issues. 

And I’ll say this: I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of a phone call from President Trump if we find that a trading partner isn’t honoring their commitments. After negotiating and signing agreements, if partners fail to deliver, that’s not going to be a pleasant conversation. 

So for me, it’s a cyclical process—negotiating fair deals, building strong relationships, and ensuring accountability. All three steps are necessary, and we see opportunities in ASEAN across each of them. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

That’s very helpful. As you were speaking, I was thinking that everything you said applies not only to agriculture, but to trade more broadly. I’d like to think the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council—not just me personally in the Secretariat, but our member companies—can play a role in providing feedback on whether things are working or not. Engaging with your colleagues at the Foreign Agricultural Service would be one way to do that, and I hope we can build on that cooperation. 

That said, some of our companies are concerned that while the U.S. is pursuing its own approach to trade, we haven’t joined agreements like CPTPP or RCEP. From your perspective, does that raise concerns that the U.S. could be left out of some of these broader trade arrangements? 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

President Trump has been very clear: his objective is balanced trade on a bilateral basis. He’s demonstrated that he can use significant leverage to restructure agreements that, frankly, have disadvantaged American workers and producers for too long. 

 The path we’re pursuing is one that ensures U.S. companies get a fair shake. Multilateral agreements are one approach, but the President has charted a different course—one focused on bilateral arrangements. And we’re already seeing results. New frameworks, agreements, and deals are taking shape that benefit both sides. 

At the end of the day, the goal is balanced trade. It’s not about America winning while others lose. It’s about building relationships that are mutually advantageous and that will stand the test of time. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

That’s very helpful for our companies to hear. Many of our leading members across sectors face non-tariff barriers. In conversations with us, they often ask whether the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council can help get their concerns on the agenda. 

Of course, we’re talking about thousands of U.S. companies, and I imagine it’s not possible to address each one individually. So how do you handle those kinds of concerns? If a company wants the Under Secretary of Agriculture to be aware of a specific issue, is there a mechanism for that? 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

There absolutely is. The first entry point is our Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) staff on the ground in each country. I’ve already met with many of our overseas staff in my first month on the job, and it’s a close-knit team. Very little that comes through the door locally fails to reach us here in Washington—though I sometimes call headquarters our “field support office,” because our job is really to back up the people working in the field. 

Beyond that, there are multiple ways companies can plug in. We have trade advisory committees—the ATACs and the APACs—that regularly advise both USDA and USTR. I also meet frequently with industry groups. For example, just today I spoke with the Food Industry Codex Coalition about U.S. support for Codex Alimentarius, the UN body that sets global food standards and addresses many non-tariff barriers. 

 We also engage regularly with our cooperator groups, like the U.S. Soybean Export Council and the U.S. Dairy Export Council. Recently, I hosted two roundtables here in Washington with more than 35 cooperator groups. We spent hours brainstorming about exactly these issues—phytosanitary standards, non-tariff barriers, and other obstacles. Our entire FAS leadership team participated to hear their concerns directly. 

So, I’d describe it as a fairly open-door policy. For America to succeed—to reduce the trade deficit and expand agricultural exports—we need a business-driven process. USDA is here to facilitate, support, and create opportunities, but we’re not setting the agenda. We’re listening to industry and making sure our work aligns with their priorities. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

That’s very helpful. I think our members make use of many of these tools, though perhaps not as much as they could. From my experience, cooperators seem fairly unique to the agricultural field—there isn’t really a parallel structure in sectors like manufacturing. It makes USDA’s model stand out compared to other parts of government. 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

That’s right. For example, the Department of Commerce has state directors in every state who support exporters. Our model is a little different. We work with regional organizations that focus on agricultural exports, and we fund some of their activities. They, in turn, work directly with small and medium-sized food companies that want to export their products worldwide. It’s a public-private partnership approach that looks different from what Commerce does, but it has proven very effective in agriculture. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

Beyond agriculture, our members are closely following the tariff process—tracking negotiations, monitoring executive orders, and raising their concerns where they can. Is there a way to set expectations for the months ahead? Should companies anticipate that new trade deals—including agriculture as a component of broader bilateral agreements—might be completed by the end of the year? Or is it more likely that these negotiations will continue into 2026? 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

That’s the trillion-dollar question. As I mentioned earlier, President Trump is directly engaged in these negotiations, and I believe he will ultimately decide the timing of any agreements. The opportunities are real—there are active negotiations and frameworks being developed—and I’m excited about what the prospects could mean for American agriculture. But at the end of the day, the President was elected to make these calls, and the timeline will be set by him and the White House team, with input from across the administration. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

Fair point—it really is the trillion-dollar question. But that’s a very helpful answer. As a final question, when you described the situation in ASEAN, you noted that U.S. exports have essentially flatlined while imports have increased. On the export side, do you see areas of growth—sectors within agriculture that have strong potential—that we should be alerting our members to? 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

So here’s the chart. I know we’re sort of on the record here, but I show it to you so you can see—this is our agricultural exports to the region. And then you see this increase on the import side, right? That’s where the gap exists. 

Historically, much of our exports to the region have been in bulk commodities, and that will continue to be an important component of our trade. But what I’m most excited about—and what many in the U.S. agricultural community are excited about—is that as ASEAN countries’ per capita incomes grow, food tastes also change. Consumers are looking for more protein in their diets, and we’d love to be shipping more pork, poultry, beef, and dairy in addition to bulk commodities. 

We’re also producers of some of the greatest fuels in the world. Biofuels, ethanol, and sustainable aviation fuel are exciting markets in that region for U.S. producers. So while bulk commodities will remain a staple, American agriculture benefits significantly more when we are able to sell those higher-value products, and that’s a key focus going forward. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

Thank you, I think that paints a great picture. That is all from me, are there any last things you would like to add? 

Under Secretary Luke Lindberg 

If I could make one last point—the ASEAN region is importing quite a lot of food, and the U.S. share of that is about 12%. We’d obviously like to see that share grow as part of the overall market in the region. That’s one statistic that, to me, gives a clear sense of where we currently stand. 

There are big opportunities ahead, especially if we can resolve some of the non-tariff barriers. One upcoming initiative is our slate of 2026 trade missions. I can’t announce the full schedule today, but keep an eye out for opportunities in the region. The one currently on the docket is Indonesia. In January, we’ll be leading a mission focused on ways U.S. producers can provide halal-based foods there. I encourage interested stakeholders to consider participating, and to look out for additional opportunities down the road. 

Ambassador Brian McFeeters 

I’m glad you mentioned halal and Indonesia. In some ways, our efforts complement each other. We have a set of business missions, and one of the next major ones is Indonesia in mid-October, which will cover a wide range of sectors. As for your mission in January, we can help raise awareness among our membership. When we engage with embassies overseas, we’ll also make sure to learn more about the other missions you have planned and keep an eye out for future announcements. Thank you very much for your time and support.