Wine Institute Supports Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement

“I will tell you, from an agricultural perspective, the bottom line is pretty clear here”.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and representatives of agriculture and business on Tuesday met with President Obama in Washington, D.C., to discuss impacts of the recently agreed upon Trans-Pacific Partnership. The US had negotiated a separate trade deal with South Korea during the Bush administration. Those high tariffs often encourage manufacturers to set up facilities in those countries rather than export there.

Farmers and members of Congress will be able to read the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the next 30 days, the head of the USDA says. “We have met that standard in this agreement”.

Sanders has publicly stated his strong opposition to the TPP.

Fitch Ratings said while the TPP will be a significant contributor to economic integration over the long term, it is unlikely to be a game changer for the economic prospects in the short term.

Earlier in the day, Obama made his first sales pitch since TPP’s Monday completion, touting the deal’s benefits and expressing confidence that Congress would ultimately pass the agreement that is aimed at raising the bar on trade rules in the region. The 11 other trading partners account for 42% of all U.S.ag exports, totaling $63 billion.

Beyond the reduction of onerous tariffs, TPP will attempt to expand intellectual property rights.

In addition to the United States, the 12 participating countries are Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and Brunei. Outside the European Union, Japan is the world’s largest pork importer.

The agreement is meant to reduce barriers to worldwide trade including the phase out of numerous import tariffs. (American automakers are lucky if they move a couple thousand cars apiece there each year.) Automaker lobbies have called out Japan’s unfavorable taxation on USA cars, the blocking of importers from selling US cars to existing Japanese dealers, and lengthy, expensive federalization processes not levied on domestic cars.

“But we also acknowledge that greater opportunities for SMEs seem to come with growing complexity with the TPP sitting alongside existing FTAs and the plethora of trade agreements around the world”. “B.C.’s objectives for the forestry sector during the TPP negotiations were to gain market access for forestry products to important TPP markets such as Japan, while maintaining existing log export controls”. There are other mechanisms in the Treasury Department to deal with currency manipulation, he added. “It is possible for Vietnam and Malaysia to crush Indonesia’s products exported to TPP members such as the USA”, Ernovian was quoted by kontan.com as saying.

What the party does know of the deal raises red flags, Davies said, particularly with respect to the poultry and dairy industries in B.C. and the auto sector in Central Canada.