Some agricultural groups would like the newly-installed U.S. Trade Representative to reconsider some previous trade deals. That includes joining what was formerly known as the Trans Pacific Partnership.
The Comprehensive and Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was formed after the U.S. withdrew from TPP talks under the Trump administration. The trade pact now includes 11 countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
The Trump Administration abandoned the trade agreement in favor of a more one-on-one approach. Now, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) says U.S. producers are missing out. IDFA - along with other ag groups- are pushing new USTR Catherine Tai to start looking into rejoining TPP or pursuing bilateral agreements more aggressively.
“Over time, the members of that TPP - or CPTPP- are enjoying ratcheting down tariffs,” says Michael Dykes, CEO of IDFA. “We’re not enjoying those. So Japan, Phase One got us caught up to what we would have been under TPP, but we’re not caught up in those other countries. We need to get back in TPP or we need agreements with those countries. We need aggressive trade policy negotiations.”
Dykes says renewing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the current administration will be important, which is set to expire at the end of June 2021.
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