Cargo Preference and US International Food Aid Programs

The United States is the world's largest donor of humanitarian assistance. However, that aid's effectiveness is hampered by decades-old rules that restrict where food aid commodities are purchased and how they are transported to recipient countries. This paper evaluates costs associated with one of those restrictions-food aid cargo preference-which requires that at least half of all U.S. food aid shipped in a given year be carried on U.S.-flagged vessels. The empirical analysis presented in this study, based on individual food aid shipments between January 2012 and May 2015, indicates that cargo preference added $42 million annually to program costs.