Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Help U.S. Beef Producers Gain Market Share

After several days of negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations successfully concluded on Monday. Trade ministers from 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the United States, met over the weekend in Atlanta. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Associate Director of Legislative Affairs Kent Bacus said this is a huge opportunity for U.S. beef producers.

 

 

“In order to get, you’ve got to give a little bit,” Bacus said. “With the beef industry, we have very open access into the U.S. market and so, we want that equal access into other markets.”

 

In reaching an agreement, this will provide a more level playing field in trade for American farmers. The agreement would eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs on agricultural products and deter non-science based sanitary and phytosanitary barriers. For example, U.S. beef has a 38.5 percent tariff in going into Japan. Meanwhile, the Australians have a tariff rate advantage, which is taking market share away from the U.S. Through the TPP, Bacus said this will help even things out.

 

“Only when you are able to be able to play with the same tariff lines and to actually get a better deal than what the Australians did, are you going to be able to take that market share back," Bacus said.

 

With concerns that the trade talks would be stalled, Bacus said they were worried that could jeopardize the future export success for U.S. beef producers. If talks were extended, he said that would push negotiations six weeks to three months from now, which would push negotiations even closer to a Presidential election cycle. That's we were so adamantly supportive of concluding the negotiations in this round.

 

The TPP will have implications beyond the countries joined in the agreement. Bacus said there are going to be other countries that aren't included in the agreement that will begin moving forward on trade. He said this could include countries like Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, Indonesia, etc. While China is not part of the TPP negotiations, having these standards in place between these 12 countries will set a precedence across the Pacific Rim. Once China sees all this grow in the region, he thinks China will also want an agreement equally attractive. Bacus said this emphasizes the need to set to standards now, so the Chinese aren’t dictating those terms later. He said it's important voters understand the importance of this agreement and put pressure on members of Congress to support the TPP agreement.