There’s a very real, tangible benefit for the U.S. beef industry when it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This is a trade agreement that has been negotiated among 12 different countries and has been brought back by the Obama Administration to the U.S. Congress for their consideration. Several agricultural groups have expressed their support for TPP, while others aren’t so sure. Some agricultural groups are still studying the text of the trade agreement. This includes the American Farm Bureau Federation, which is expected to vote on the agreement at their December board of directors meeting. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall said passage of TPP will be complicated by it being an election year. He said NCBA is pushing for a vote on TPP in the first quarter of 2016.
"That’s a pretty tight timeline for us," Woodall said. “It’s going to take a lot effort to get it done and really it’s questionable whether that can get done, just from the shear fact that a few of us in agriculture have come out in support, but we haven’t seen too many within the business community who have made a firm statement yet. So we going to need them to decide what they think their position is going to be, so that way we can all work together and start putting pressure on both the House and Senate to take a vote."
One of the stumbling blocks is how the TPP trade agreement will address intellectual property rights and patent protection. These concerns have been brought up by several members of Congress, such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. He wants to see those portions of the trade agreement renegotiated. Woodall said that’s not likely.
“There’s no way anything is going to be renegotiated, so that concerns us because we need the Chairman (Hatch) to be able to support passage of the TPP, if we’re going to be successful,” Woodall said.
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