This report provides a brief overview of the European Union's (EU) accession process and Turkey's path to EU membership.

This report discusses commercial ties between the United States and the 27-member European Union. These ties are substantial, growing, and mutually beneficial, but differences in regulatory approaches limit an even more integrated marketplace from developing. This report is intended to serve as an introduction and primer on this complicated, broad, and often highly technical set of issues.

This report uses data from two public sources to compare agricultural support between the United States and the European Union (EU): (1) estimates of domestic support for agricultural programs based on World Trade Organization (WTO) notifications; and (2) the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) country-level policy database. Each of these data sources uses a slightly different metric to evaluate agricultural support. The report includes an overview of farm programs in the U.S. and EU, comparisons of support based on the metrics, and conclusions with policy implications.