US-Japan Deal Leaves US Dairy Exporters Behind, House Members Say

The promise of good news for farmers in the U.S.-Japan trade deal is oversold, five Democrats told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as they complained in a letter about how the deal was negotiated without keeping Congress in the loop.

The letter, led by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and joined by the rest of the Democrats in the Wisconsin delegation, as well as Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said that dairy exporters from the U.S. will have inferior market access to European, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand exporters. They said the deal “lacks critical provisions for the U.S. dairy market," but the letter did not lay out what the differences are between the U.S. agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership or European free trade deal.

“[President Donald] Trump is once again ignoring Congress, by trying to secure a trade deal with Japan behind closed doors and in a piece-meal way,” Rep. Gwen Moore said in the press release Sept. 20 announcing the letter. “Trump’s two-stage approach and failure to consult with Congress will mean any trade deal will be ripe with inadequacies.”

According to a report written for dairy exporters, U.S. dairy exports to Japan in 2017 were about $291 million, with almost half of those exports being cheese, and nearly a quarter of those exports whey. Japan was the destination of about 5 percent of total U.S. dairy exports. There is a 29.8 percent tariff on cheese imports in Japan, and at the five-year mark for TPP implementation, TPP countries will pay about 20 percent in tariffs on cheese, the report said.

The deal would give dairy exporters less market access than EU countries for exports of cheese, butter, skim milk powder, ice cream and condensed milk, the letter said.

The New York Times reported Sept. 23 that the Japan-U.S. trade deal might not be signed on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, as had been predicted, because Japan wants a stronger assurance that signing will protect its cars from Section 232 tariffs, and the U.S. has been unwilling to grant that.