The National Pork Producers Council is welcoming encouraging developments on the U.S. trade front.
The United States has concluded negotiations aimed at modernizing trade agreements with Canada and Mexico and with South Korea and this week the Trump administration announced plans to negotiate agreements with the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom.
National Pork Producers Council Senior Communications Director Jim Monroe says this is good news.
Clip-Jim Monroe-National Pork Producers Council:
Our number one priority with new free trade agreements will be completion of an agreement with Japan.
Japan has recently signed agreements with the European Union.
It is also part of the new TPP agreement which involves 11 nations, most of them in the Asia-Pacific region and, without a free trade agreement with Japan, we are at risk of losing market share as those agreements that Japan has formed go into effect likely next year.
That's why the news that we're going to negotiate a new agreement with Japan is very favorable.
We ship a lot of pork to Japan today on certain terms and if we can get improved terms through a new free trade agreement I think we're going to be in an even stronger position and will not be at risk of losing market share where I think we would be without an agreement.
I would also add one of our top priorities will be seeing the ratification of the revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
That's likely going to be taken up by Congress early next year and we will be watching that as a key vote, making sure that our members and we represent the interest of 60 thousand U.S. pork producers, we'll make sure that they are very clear on the yes and no votes for that agreement.
We believe strongly that it should be ratified and we want to see that happen as soon as possible.
Monroe says after months of being on the defensive the United States is going on the offensive in terms of trade policy.
Source : farmscape