The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on Tuesday on “Expanding U.S. Agricultural Trade and Eliminating Barriers to U.S. Exports.” Much of the hearing entailed promoting congressional passage of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and conclusion of the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP).
Subcommittee Chair Dave Reichert (R-WA) stated that TPP holds “great promise.” And, TPP “would eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs and quotas for agricultural exports to the fastest growing region in the world and I am particularly pleased that TPP would establish enforceable ‘WTO-plus’ obligations to ensure that sanitary and phytosanitary measures are not used as hidden protectionism, while not diminishing in any way the ability of the United States to guarantee the safety of imported food.”
John Weber, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said in his testimony at the hearing that “TPP has become the de factor global trade vehicle, with other countries in the region already asking to join it and would set the new international trade rules and the bar for future trade agreements, including the deal now being negotiated between the United States and the European Union.”
Minnesota Farm Bureau President Kevin Paap, representing the American Farm Bureau Federation, also testified in favor of TPP and T-TIP. “American producers will see significant reductions in trade barriers if TPP is approved,” Paap said. On T-TIP, Paap commented that the “EU was once the largest destination for U.S. agricultural exports. Today, it has fallen to our fifth-largest export market. Tariff and regulatory barriers have become a significant impediment to increased exports. These negotiations must result in a modern, science- and risk-based approach to food safety, based on international standards, which can truly settle disputes.”
