Pursuit's Take
FAS estimates that the cumulative effect of MAP expenditures since 1986 is $5 billion of additional agricultural exports in 1997 which, in turn, FAS says generate 86,500 jobs and $12 billion in additional economic activity.23 This estimate is based on the projected impact of $1.25 billion (1997 dollars) of spending between 1986 and 1997 on consumer food export promotion through MAP (including an estimated $5 million per year in Foreign Market Development Program expenditures).
GAO’s review of the recent estimates of MAP’s impact on the macroeconomy and the methodology used to derive them suggests that the benefits attributed to MAP by FAS are overstated.