Viondette is a Trade Policy Director at the United States Department of Agriculture. Focusing on Africa and the Middle East, Viondette’s main role is to analyze trade requests and agreements to ensure that all imports into the country meet the standards set forth by the United States and the World Trade Organization.
Transcript
>> My name is Viondette Lopez and I work with the U.S. federal government at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Well, I am in the trade unit and we work with other countries. Other countries want to export their agricultural goods to the United States. We want to export ours into those countries. So, we work together to see how we could do that in a safe way. My particular role is to ensure that we're working with partners who are respecting international standards and trade. Who are respecting the World Trade Organization. Who are not creating technical barriers to trade. And who are working to facilitate trade among partners in their regions. And with the United States. A country will contact our department of -- for example, the Animal, Plant, Health Inspection Service is a regulatory agency. They will contact that agency. And ask for market access for a particular commodity. Let's say vegetables, fruits that may be grown in that region. We, in turn, will do a risk assessment. We'll determine if that particular commodity is safe to bring into the United States or what risks it may pose to our own crops here. And based on those assessments, we would suggest certain mitigations. So that if that commodity is brought to the United States, it doesn't pose any risks to our own agriculture.
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