The U.S. dairy industry does not insist on complete tariff elimination under a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, U.S. Dairy Export Council President Thomas Suber said in a recent interview with Jiji Press.
Total tariff elimination under the TPP is “our hope,” Suber said. But “We do not insist on that,” he said.
The comments came as the U.S. pork industry has been pressing for Japan’s complete tariff removal.
Still, Suber stressed that significant commercial market access for all products is important.
“It should be a TPP agreement that everyone can live with, which means significant commercial access with some differences amongst products,” Suber said.
But no exclusion from significant commercial access can be accepted, he said, expressing opposition to giving preferential treatment to Japan’s tariffs on its five sensitive farm product categories including beef, pork and dairy products. “A very unambitious package” is hard to accept, he said.
Source: Japan News