Agricultural Exports Help Balance of Payments

U.S. agricultural exports are one of the major bright spots in the unfavorable U.S. balance-of-payments picture. Our farm product shipments, which reached a record peak in 1964, are helping offset the dollar drain flowing in large part from U.S. investment abroad, cold war outlays, and tourist expenditures. Large U.S. dollar deficits and losses of monetary gold are genuine cause for concern. Even though the United States is the principal banker of the free world, any potential weakness of the dollar poses the threat of serious monetary and trade problems for us and our friends abroad. Further expansion of exports, including U.S. agricultural shipments, is high on the list of measures advocated to correct the balance-of-payments problem.