Lawmakers Urge Administration to Address TPP Dairy Implementation Issues
The Obama administration should better address implementation and enforcement issues related to dairy provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), said forty-seven House lawmakers in an April 21 letter (here) to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The lawmakers call for the administration to ensure Canada doesn’t alter existing U.S. market access lanes, make sure U.S. trading partners follow the spirit of TPP geographical indication (GI) commitments, and to establish procedures to ensure compliance with market access terms the U.S. will provide to the other TPP parties.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The lawmakers expressed concerns that Canadian government policy has limited U.S. access to the Canadian dairy market, and about the lingering potential of overly expansive GI protections squeezing U.S. products out of foreign markets. Led by Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.; Ron Kind, D-Wis.; Reid Ribble, R-Wis.; and David Valadao, R-Calif.; the letter also tells the administration to create procedures to ensure U.S. trading partners ship products in full compliance with TPP market access terms. “As we continue to weigh the merits of this agreement in preparation for Congressional action, we would appreciate your prioritization of these concerns,” the letter says. “Each of these considerations will be an important factor in how we view the overall agreement.”
The U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, and the International Dairy Foods Association welcomed the letter. “The fine print in implementing TPP really matters,” NMPF CEO Jim Mulhern said in a statement (here). “We have endorsed the outlines of the agreement, but must insist that the terms agreed to need to be followed by the other countries in this agreement. The U.S. needs to remain vigilant with the TPP signatories and really hold their feet to the fire both now and down the road.”