March 17, 2014
US agricultural organisations oppose Japan''s TPP offer
The Obama administration and trade negotiators are urged by the US agriculture organisations and bipartisan senators to refuse Japan''s offer in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which seeks to protect key agricultural products like pork and beef, wheat and dairy.
Such a move opens the door for other countries to also protect their products from free trade and puts upward pressure on global food prices, says Nick Giordano, vice president and counsel for international affairs for the National Pork Producers Council.
Japan''s bid to protect key agricultural products in TPP trade negotiations would be "unprecedented" and dangerous to future free trade agreements, US commodity groups say.
Japan has insisted it will not accept free trade for "sensitive" product categories, including beef and pork, wheat and barley, rice and starch, dairy and sugar, Giordano said during a press teleconference.
Organisations like the American Farm Bureau Association, National Cattlemen''s Beef Association and National Oilseed Processors Association and legislators are urging the Obama administration and trade negotiators to reject Japan''s offer.
Japan''s proposed exempted sectors account for hundreds of products classified in hundreds of tariff categories, Giordano said, totalling nearly 600 tariff lines, which exceed almost three times the total number of tariff lines exempted in all 17 US free trade agreements combined implemented in this century.
He said free trade agreements are designed to eliminate tariffs. Even if it is possible to prevent TPP negotiations from unravelling, and a "TPP-lite" deal is struck, Giordano said other countries in the Asian-Pacific region, like China, would make similar demands. It would have "significant negative implications" about the US'' ability to reach an acceptable agreement in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations with the EU, he said.
Exempting food from trade deals puts upward pressure on global food prices, which undermines global security, Giordano said.
Walter Powell, chairman of the US Wheat Associates and National Association of Wheat Growers joint international trade policy committee and past president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, said Japan''s proposed exclusions are unacceptable.
Japan is typically the largest buyer of soft white wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest.
In February, Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and a bipartisan group of 17 senators sent a letter to US Trade Representative Michael Froman urging Japan must negotiate on all agricultural products and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers in the
TPP.
Giordano doesn''t believe the issues are insurmountable.
The sectors Japan insists on protecting represent a tiny share of the Japanese economy, he said. He pointed to success in Korea opening its economy to the US and EU by eliminating virtually all tariffs on food and agriculture products. Trading partners in Vietnam, Malaysia and others are ready to follow Korea''s example, he said.