Beef producers from five Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member countries are calling for a high-quality market access deal on beef to be secured at the TPP ministerial meeting in Hawaii this month.
Negotiators and trade ministers from the 12 TPP countries will meet in Maui in late July, with the goal of reaching agreement on the outstanding issues across the TPP agenda.
The Five Nations Beef Alliance (FNBA)1 says it is vital that a comprehensive, trade liberalising deal be finalised.
In so doing, it would help to ensure that beef producers and their supply chain partners can reap the maximum benefits of the envisaged tariff cuts and that commercial entities can utilize the other trade-facilitating elements of the agreement as soon as possible.
After five years of negotiations, the TPP must not be allowed to drift or lose momentum at this crucial stage. There is so much to gain from trade reform – with more seamless trade rules, reduced costs and less red tape making it easier for food suppliers, such as the FNBA, to respond to growing global consumer demand.
The FNBA has consistently called for a non-discriminatory, plurilateral TPP deal that will liberalise the trade in beef products and thereby provide beef farmers, processors and exporters with new opportunities across much of the Asia-Pacific region.
Click here to see more...