US Dairy Groups Avoid Call for TPP Duty Elimination, Say US Negotiations Shouldn't Benefit All

The Obama administration should ensure duties on all tariff lines are reduced in a Trans-Pacific Partnership, said three prominent dairy producers in a Dec. 4 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, while stopping short of calling for comprehensive elimination (here). The administration and a wide range of industry representatives have called for complete tariff elimination in the pact, but as the talks continue to move forward without any critical breakthrough, some analysts have said partial tariff elimination still can benefit the U.S. (see 14060404).

The U.S. Dairy Export Council, the National Milk Producers Federation and the International Dairy Foods Association said in the letter the U.S. needs to look out primarily for its industries and not those of the other 11 TPP parties. “As USTR and USDA continue their negotiations with Japan and Canada, we would like to underscore the importance of ensuring that those talks prioritize delivery of benefits to the U.S. dairy industry, not other TPP trading partners,” said the letter. “Industries in other TPP countries may wish to put the onus on the U.S. to deliver export gains for their sectors rather than relying on their own governments to secure market access concessions from key trading partners in this agreement.”

Despite nearly a year of talks with Japan, U.S. negotiators have been unable to land a compromise over Japanese agricultural market access, including dairy. U.S. industry has also pushed hard for Canadian dairy and poultry concessions after failing to fully open up those markets through the North American Free Trade Agreement. Other TPP countries need to avoid relying on U.S. efforts to liberalize TPP markets for all TPP partners, said the letter. Instead, other countries should be negotiating market access concessions on their own, it added.