U.S. Ag Groups Put Forward Ideas for TPP Trade Agreement

Aug 28, 2013

U.S. Ag Groups Put Forward Ideas for TPP Trade Agreement

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

A coalition of 37 food and farm groups in the United States have outlined their key ideas for what they would like to see in the Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

The group listed seven principles which they say must be achieved in order to fulfill a high-quality trade agreement:

• Include all aspects of trade including – agriculture, goods and services, digital trade, competition policy and intellectual property;
• Don’t include exclusions on certain products or sectors. The group says exclusions would limit opportunities for member countries to spur jobs and economic growth;
• Phase out tariff and market barriers – with transition periods to have defined deadlines;
• Include consequences on sanitary-phytosanitary (SPS) issues;
• Provide a “Rapid Response Mechanism” to manage issues with perishable shipments such as agricultural products;
• Add an enforcement mechanism to enforce trade obligations beyond World Trade Organization consequences;
• All elements of negotiation must be included in one package, not on an individual basis

The 19th round of negotiations wrap up this week with - United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.