TPP Will Streamline Customs, SPS Procedures, Expert Says
The Trans-Pacific Partnership will help reduce entry times, provide better information for exporters, and modernize sanitary and phytosanitary trade practices, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Director for Japan and Korea James Fatheree said during a panel discussion in Washington March 30. His words echoed findings in an analysis of the TPP by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (see 1603220062), which projected removal of non-tariff barriers will have a bigger impact on TPP member states than tariff reductions. “It helps reduce the time it takes to get goods into the market once they’ve landed,” Fatheree said during the event, hosted by the Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy on Capitol Hill. “That’s all good stuff. There was not, unfortunately, any provisions for cross-TPP de minimis standards, which would’ve been something that would help, I think, overall.”
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But failure to achieve perfection shouldn’t deter the push to ratify TPP, which is a “very good” agreement, Fatheree said. In addition to customs and other areas, TPP breaks ground in sanitary/phytosanitary (SPS) rules, as it would put into place a rapid reporting system, buttress a greater use of science-based standards and risk analysis, establish a cooperative SPS technical consulting system, and would include a dispute settlement procedure that would apply specifically to such rules. “There would be major costs if it’s not approved,” Fatheree said. “U.S. companies, ag producers, and our workers will be at a disadvantage. Australia and others have free trade agreements with Japan. They will be able to export to Japan -- their beef, their wine, their agricultural products at a substantial advantage to us over the existing tariff levels -- 40.5 percent on beef” for U.S. exports to Japan.