The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) welcomed reports that the United States and Japan will commence trade negotiations on April 15, 2019 and urged the Trump administration to expeditiously complete and deliver for ratification to Congress a trade deal that puts U.S. pork producers back on a level playing field in Japan.
“U.S. pork producers are losing market share in Japan to international competitors that have recently negotiated more favorable trade terms in our most valuable market,” said David Herring, NPPC’s president and a pork producer from Lillington, North Carolina. “We are already seeing a decline in sales to Japan and will see market loss accelerate if we don’t quickly secure competitive access to Japan.”
Six countries – Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam – have implemented the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement of Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and gained more favorable access to Japan. These countries and other CPTPP implementing countries will see access to Japan steadily improve over the next ten years. Japan’s recently implemented trade deal with the European Union effectively mirrors the CPTPP agreement.
According to Dr. Dermot Hayes, an economist at Iowa State University, U.S. pork will see exports to Japan grow from $1.6 billion in 2018 to more than $2.2 billion over the next 15 years if the United States quickly gains access on par with international competitors. Hayes reports that U.S. pork shipments to Japan will drop to $349 million if a trade deal on these terms is not quickly reached with Japan.
NPPC’s director of international affairs, Maria Zieba, will address U.S. pork’s position on the trade negotiation with Japan at the Washington International Trade Association’s “Future of U.S.-Japan Trade” panel on April 3. A position paper by Nick Giordano, NPPC’s vice president and counsel, global government affairs, can be found here.
Source: National Pork Producers Council