Thirty-nine dairy enterprises - from Massachusetts to Virginia and from New York to Washington - sent a letter yesterday to U.S. Trade Representative
Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary
Thomas Vilsak, underscoring their frustration over the lack of progress in the TPP negotiations.
The press release on the letter from the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council provided this context:
"The majority of U.S. Dairy farmer cooperatives and dairy processing companies, all of which are members of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), today threatened to withdraw support from the pending Trans-Pacific trade agreement if Japan and Canada refuse to follow through on pledges to provide comprehensive market access for U.S. dairy products."
The same press release included statements from
Tom Suber, the president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and from
Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation. This was the quote from Tom Suber:
"USDEC has been one of the most vocal champions of the importance of including Japan and Canada in TPP since these markets offer strong opportunities for our members to expand dairy exports. However, it is critical that their participation in TPP be meaningful and comprehensive across all dairy products. It is entirely unacceptable to have such sizable, sophisticated economies refusing to undertake the necessary openness that they agreed to upon entering TPP."
We do not know which of the two countries, Japan or Canada, will ultimately be more important to the dairy segment of the TPP negotiations. Clearly, though, the focus now is on Japan. That is because U.S. dairy producers believe that whatever Japan agrees to will strongly influence the U.S. negotiations with Canada.
We should note too that the letter highlighted here also suggested that, without progress in the market access negotiations with Japan and Canada, the U.S. dairy sector might need to "re-examine" its support for Trade Promotion Authority.
