The first letter (PDF, 83KB), from 225 agricultural organizations, urged approval of TPP, stating it would “help level the playing field” for U.S. exports. The letter states 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside of the U.S. and 20 percent of U.S. farm income is derived from exports. It also cites USDA data: “USDA estimates that every $1 billion of U.S. agricultural exports in 2014 provided approximately 7,550 American jobs throughout the economy. According to USDA, U.S. food and agricultural exports reached a record $150 billion in 2014, supporting 1,132,000 full-time civilian jobs, which included 808,000 jobs in the non-farm sector. The agricultural export surplus helped to offset some of the non-agricultural trade deficit.”
“If we do not lead, we will simply fall behind as our competitors aggressively work to establish alternative trade agreements that place their agricultural interests at an advantage.”
This letter is signed by 225 agricultural organizations, including the National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and associations representing national and state beef, corn, poultry, grains, soybeans, potatoes, pecans, equipment manufacturers, animal feed and seed companies.
In a separate letter (PDF, 136KB), the presidents of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation and International Diary Foods Association urged Congress to pass the TPP, citing proper implementation and enforcement would be necessary to realize the potential of expanded dairy exports.
The first issue of implementation and enforcement addressed by the U.S. dairy groups is to ensure that Canada “not only implements its TPP commitments on dairy, but also does not alter existing avenues for U.S. access to the Canadian market, absent the emergence of legitimate new food safety issues.” The second issue addressed for enforcement is to hold Japan to its commitment to tariff-rate quotas to include import licensing and operation safeguards. The third issue addressed is to combat EU-driven barriers to U.S. cheese exports.
Their letter cites the two most important areas to benefit from the agreement, which are sanitary and phytosanitary issues, as well as geographical indications and common food names. FG
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Lynn Jaynes
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