TPP is a regional trade deal that includes the US, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which account for nearly 40% of global gross domestic product. After five years of negotiation, the agreement was settled in principle in October.
“Past US free trade agreements (FTAs) have demonstrated the importance to our industry of opening international markets,” said National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) president Ron Prestage, a veterinarian and pork producer from South Carolina. “TPP will provide benefits to our producers that dramatically exceed those of prior trade agreements. I assure you that pork producers across this great nation will do whatever it takes to get TPP passed by Congress and implemented.”
Previous agreements have increased US pork exports by 1,550% in value and almost 1,300% in volume since 1989 – the year the US began using bilateral and regional trade agreements to open foreign markets – and now are valued at nearly $6.7 billion, said the NPPC.
Pork exports
“The US now exports more pork to its 20 FTA partners than to the rest of the world combined,” Prestage said. “Free trade agreements work,” he stressed, “not just for pork producers and US agriculture but for the entire US economy. As a nation, we export almost as much to our FTA partners as we do to the rest of the world combined.”
“Without the TPP agreement, US pork exports to the Pacific Rim region would be at a serious competitive disadvantage,” added Prestage. “Competitors, such as the EU, which are negotiating FTAs with countries in the region, will leap at the opportunity to fill the void that congressional delay would create. It is important that Congress act swiftly so that we don’t fall behind.”
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) president Philip Ellis also issued a statement backing the agreement and urging the swift passing of the TPP into law. “Every day that goes by before we pass this TPP costs US producers market share in the Pacific Rim,” he said. “And every day, competing nations continue to negotiate agreements benefiting their producers and domestic economies.
'Level playing field'
“Since the passage of the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership in late 2014, we have lost over 11% of our sales into Japan. Our market share will continue to erode until the TPP is signed into law. America’s cattle-producing families produce the best beef in the world and deserve a level playing field to compete for global customers; TPP is an outstanding start.
“While the agreement is not perfect, it is a vast improvement over the current tariff rates, and the greatest market access that has ever been negotiated to Japan. Clearly, working collaboratively we were able to achieve more than we could have alone. The TPP will immediately reduce the tariff to Japan, our largest market for US beef, from 38.5% to 27.5%. And tariffs will continue to decrease, in some cases be eliminated, over the next 15 years.”