The dairy groups spoke out as President Trump formally withdrew the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which NMPF and USDEC had supported because it contained benefits for America’s dairy farmers. A retreat from TPP “must not lead to a retreat from economic engagement with growing Asian markets for American dairy products,” says NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern.
“Our competitors have been successfully negotiating trade agreements over the past several years. This puts the U.S. agriculture sector at a competitive disadvantage if we don’t pursue our own initiatives,” Mulhern says.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership “was far from perfect, but was beneficial to the U.S. dairy sector because in addition to new market access, it also made significant progress in focusing on other barriers, including sanitary/phytosanitary standards, as well as the abuse of geographical indications to block competition in common food categories,” adds Matt McKnight, Acting Chief of Staff for USDEC.
One approach the new administration could take is to replace TPP with bilateral agreements with countries such as Japan, Vietnam and others in Southeast Asia.
NMPF and USDEC joined 130 other farm and food organizations in calling on President Trump to preserve hard-fought agriculture market access in Mexico, which is the No. 1 market for U.S. dairy exports, totaling $1.2 billion in 2016.
“NMPF and USDEC are watching developments very, very closely,” says Jaime Castaneda, senior VP of Strategic Initiatives and Trade for both organizations. “We want to make sure the United States doesn’t create a problem with what is working very well, and what is working very well is selling agricultural and dairy products into Mexico.”
“The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has opened a major door to Mexico that we don’t want slammed shut,” Mulhern says. “In contrast, Canada, the other NAFTA party, has habitually and deliberately worked to undermine dairy trade. We have been very vocal in the past year that Canada is not living up to its dairy market access opportunities for the United States. This issue must be on the table in any discussion about the future of NAFTA.”
McKnight noted that “the U.S. dairy sector exports 15 percent of its milk production, or one day’s worth of milk production out of each week. In 2015, those exports were worth over $5 billion, and helped generate more than 120,000 jobs in dairy farming, manufacturing and related sectors.”
He said the groups will continue to press lawmakers on the important link between export sales and dairy job growth in the United States.
Source: DairyHerd
Link: http://www.dairyherd.com/news/markets/nmpf-usdec-urge-caution-blowing-trade-agreements