Froman Pushes Importance of Free Trade to Farmer Cooperatives Conference
Elimination of tariffs as high as 32 percent for orange exports to Japan and as high as 40 percent for exports of “key categories” of cheese to the country, along with Japanese commitments to improve tariff-rate quota management, will help U.S. agriculture exports to grow significantly under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said during the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Washington Conference (here). The U.S. and Japan are the two largest economies in TPP, and the agreement cannot enter into force unless both sign it. Under TPP, agricultural product tariffs will “either go away completely or be greatly reduced in areas of priorities,” Froman said. “As you go up to Capitol Hill today, I want you to keep this choice in mind and make it clear to the people you’re talking to,” Froman said. “Do we want to help shape an Asia Pacific market based on a rules-based trading system that reflects our interests and ou[r] values, or are we going to cede that role to others and find ourselves excluded from large and some of the fastest growing markets in the world, facing a set of rules that do not necessarily play to our advantages?”
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Froman said the U.S. and EU continue to work to conclude Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations by the end of this year, but did note that EU agricultural exports tend to benefit from U.S. market access, while U.S. farm products are often “completely shut out” of the EU. He said that the U.S. already offers sound geographical indication protections for EU agriculture products. “We’ve got more work to do with the Europeans on eliminating tariffs and quotas for our exports,” Froman said. “When we negotiate free trade agreements, we have the goal of eliminating all tariffs, and that goal is what the EU agreed to when we launched the T-TIP negotiations three years ago.”