Dive Brief:
- The U.S. and Japan are nearing completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact involving 12 Pacific nations. The TPP still faces challenges, including getting other countries and Congress to agree on the details.
- Negotiators from the U.S. and Japan have been working for nearly two years on this agreement, which could lessen or eliminate many trade barriers, including those set on agricultural imports and exports.
- The U.S. wants to increase its agricultural imports to Japan, but Japan has hesitated due to "concerns about the sustainability of its shrinking domestic agricultural industry," International Business Times reported.
Dive Insight:
USDA says this trade pact is crucial for the country, as the U.S. would be entering this agreement with "a critical region that accounts for 40 percent of the world economy." The USDA has detailed a number of different agricultural markets that would benefit from this agreement, from apples and beer to soybean and livestock feed. Currently, the U.S. faces high tariffs on many of these products, as well as other trade complications which could be remedied by the TPP.
Pork producers may be some of the highest benefactors of the TPP, as the U.S. exported almost $5 billion of pork and pork products to the TPP region in 2014. This is especially true for exports to Japan, the leading pork market for the U.S. in 2014, where the U.S. saw almost $2 billion in sales, even with high tariffs and a complex import system.