Produce industry hails news of TPP agreement designed to open Pacific Rim trade
Produce industry hails news of TPP agreement designed to open Pacific Rim trade
WASHINGTON — Trade ministers have reached an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership during marathon negotiations in Atlanta. United Fresh Produce Association said the agreement is critical in gaining market access and lifting trade barriers that have blocked U.S. fruits and vegetables in the past.
Details of the 12-nation agreement were not available, but the full text is expected to be released shortly.
After five years of negotiations, officials with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States and Vietnam announced the historic agreement that is designed to liberalize trade and investment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the participating countries account for up to 42 percent of all U.S. agricultural exports, totaling $633 billion.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday the agreement provides a more level playing field for U.S. farmers as it would eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs on their products and deter non-science-based sanitary and phytosanitary barriers.
“Thanks to this agreement and its removal of unfair trade barriers, American agricultural exports to the region will expand even further, particularly exports of meat, poultry, dairy, fruits, vegetables, grains, oilseeds, cotton and processed products,” he said.
While details of the Pacific Rim agreement were not yet available, Robert Guenther, senior vice president for public policy at United Fresh, said his group will work with Congress to move the agreement forward.
“Market access is always a key component of our efforts to help increase the competitiveness of the fresh produce industry,” he said. “And while reducing and removing tariffs are an important part of opening up markets, just as important is removing non-tariff and technical trade barriers which have consistently been the biggest threat to fresh fruit and vegetable access with other countries. Therefore, we look forward to reviewing the text around these technical and non-tariff issues to ensure they include more transparency and certainty in addressing these situations as they arise.”
The agreement must jump through several hoops before becoming finalized and Vilsack warned against letting the accord slip away from U.S. producers.
“Failing to grasp this opportunity would be a mistake: worse than just losing out on potential gains, our producers would fall behind other countries that are negotiating their own preferential arrangements in TPP countries,” he said.
