Agricultural Trade Promotion Program | 2019 06

Opportunity Information: Apply for 2019 06

The Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP) is a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) cost-share grant program created to help U.S. agricultural stakeholders respond to export disruptions tied to retaliatory tariffs imposed on U.S. agricultural products in 2018 and 2019. The basic idea is reimbursement: eligible organizations that carry out approved overseas market development and promotion work can recover a portion of their costs, provided they can show they were harmed by those tariffs through impacts such as reduced sales, lost revenue, or diminished market share. The program is meant to shore up and expand foreign demand for U.S. farm and food products at a time when tariffs made competing abroad harder, and it supports marketing activities as well as efforts that tackle existing or emerging non-tariff barriers to trade.

ATP funding is awarded competitively and is governed by the evaluation criteria in the Notice of Funding Opportunity and the ATP regulations referenced on the FAS website. While many commodities can be supported, the program explicitly excludes tobacco; otherwise, U.S. agricultural commodities are generally eligible. FAS enters into agreements with approved participants and shares the cost of qualifying overseas promotional activities, which can include trade servicing, consumer promotions, trade shows, in-market promotions, and related market access work when it fits the program rules. Even though small for-profit entities may be involved, they do so indirectly: qualifying for-profit U.S. companies that are no larger than 300 percent of SBA small business size standards (as defined in 13 CFR 121.201) can participate in branded promotion activities through an eligible ATP participant rather than applying on their own.

Eligibility for direct participation is limited to specific types of entities: non-profit U.S. agricultural trade organizations, non-profit State Regional Trade Groups (SRTGs), U.S. agricultural cooperatives, and state government agencies. Applicants must be able to document tariff-related damages and must be conducting foreign market development activities that can be reviewed and approved under the program. The opportunity notes that, while small for-profit, nonprofit, and government entities receive full consideration, FAS gives priority to organizations that represent the broadest base of producers and have strong affiliated industry participation for the commodity being promoted. In practical terms, that preference favors groups that can demonstrate wide industry reach and the ability to deliver market development benefits across a large portion of a sector rather than a narrow set of firms.

For this particular announcement, FAS reported receiving an additional $100 million in FY 2019 ATP funding. However, the funding was not opened up for a new round of fresh applications. Instead, the agency planned to allocate the additional FY 2019 funds against applications that had already been submitted under the initial ATP program announcement with a deadline of November 2, 2018. The notice also makes clear that no new ATP applications would be accepted under this announcement, and that applications that were fully funded in the first round would not be reconsidered for additional funding under this action. As with many federal grant programs, USDA also stated it did not guarantee funding for any particular application or promise any specific number of awards, regardless of the level of FY 2019 funding ultimately available.

Applicants whose earlier submissions were only partially funded were expected to provide a specific justification for the additional federal assistance requested. That justification needed to explain what portions of the previously proposed work could not be completed without federal support and why the participating organizations were unlikely to proceed without that assistance. Importantly, the justification had to tie directly to the unfunded portion of the application submitted by the original November 2, 2018 deadline, rather than proposing an entirely new scope of work.

Administratively, the opportunity is listed as a mandatory grant in the agriculture funding activity area (CFDA 10.618) through USDA’s Office of Trade Programs. The notice shows a creation date of June 3, 2019 and an original closing date of June 12, 2019, with an expectation of around 60 awards. The award ceiling is shown as $0 in the listing, which typically indicates the ceiling was not specified in that field rather than implying awards would be zero. Eligible applicant categories in the listing include state governments, certain tribal governments and tribal organizations, qualifying nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)), and small businesses, though the narrative clarifies that small businesses participate via branded programs through ATP participants rather than as primary applicants.

• The Department of Agriculture, Office of Trade Programs in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Agricultural Trade Promotion Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.618.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 03, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 12, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 60 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Small businesses.

Apply for 2019 06

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