In a letter to several top administration officials, the National Chicken Council and 37 other organizations said “that a well-negotiated, high-standard agreement can benefit agricultural producers, processors, and exporters in all Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) partner countries. However, for a TPP agreement to be commercially meaningful, it must include effective disciplines on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures–disciplines that underscore the importance of science-based regulation and are fully enforceable.”
The groups explained “the vital importance of ‘WTO-plus’ SPS provisions–that is, obligations that go beyond the WTO SPS Agreement on issues like risk assessment, risk management, transparency, border checks and laboratory testing, and facilitating trade through regulatory coherence measures.”
The letter was sent yesterday to Ambassador Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative; Secretary Hillary Clinton, U.S. Department of State; Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank, U.S. Department of Commerce; and Administrator Lisa Jackson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other poultry groups signing the letter were the National Turkey Federation and USA Poultry & Egg Export Council. The letter is available here.
