WASHINGTON, April 26,
2016 - With all the press releases and letters coming out from farm groups is
support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it can be hard to remember that
there is a substantial agricultural voice opposed to the 12-country trade pact.
But the National Farmers Union remains steadfast in its opposition and
announced Monday that Rep. Rick Nolan and NFU President Roger Johnson will lead
a teleconference Wednesday to explain why they think TPP isn’t as good as much
of the ag sector believes.
“United States trade officials are promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership … as
an export boon for agriculture, but National Farmers Union … continues to stand
strong in their defense of the independent farmers and ranchers who will see
little benefit if Congress were to pass the trade agreement,” the group said
Monday.
The NFU also is expected to release a TPP letter on Wednesday that will be
signed by 160 food, farm, faith and rural groups.
And for the rebuttal … Darci Vetter, the chief agricultural negotiator for
the U.S. Trade Representative, reacted to NFU’s plans by saying the group
doesn’t have much of an argument because the trade pact between the U.S.,
Japan, Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Chile,
Brunei and Malaysia will result in increased exports in agriculture commodities
and much more revenue for American farms, regardless of how big they are.
“Family farmers, large farmers – whatever your scale may be – you’re going to
benefit if your commodity prices are higher,” she said in a briefing for
members of the North American Agriculture Journalists.
Furthermore, Vetter told the gathering of farm reporters from around the
country that she sees the “lame duck” session of Congress after the elections
in November as the best opportunity to get TPP passed by Congress.
Beef and Poultry will be tough issues to resolve with EU. U.S. and EU
negotiators are busy this week in New York City going over how far tariffs can
be reduced as part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP).
But getting increased access for U.S. beef exports to Europe and persuading the
Europeans to accept the antimicrobial washes that U.S. chicken processors use
to prevent contamination may be two of the most difficult tasks.
“Those are very difficult issues,” Vetter said. “We want to see increased,
predictable access for U.S. beef. We have high-quality product to sell. Years
ago when we first had the case on hormone-treated beef against Europe, Europe
was largely self-sufficient in that product. If you look at their population
now, they’re really in need of imports and we’d like to fill that demand. On
the poultry side, we really are unable to ship if they don’t recognize our
processing methods, and so seeing some recognition of those pathogen reduction
treatments is critical for us to be able to take advantage of any tariff cuts
they might offer.”
Consumers seeing relief on food prices. USDA has lowered its forecast for
consumer food costs this year amid downward pressure on meat, poultry and egg
prices. In its monthly
food price outlook, USDA economists are now projecting that food prices
will be up just 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent this year. That’s below the 20-year
average inflation of 2.6 percent, and it’s down from last month’s forecast for
this year of 2 to 3 percent.
USDA says there could be further declines in food prices this year if oil
prices remain low, which cuts production and transportation costs, and because
of the strong U.S. dollar, which is discouraging U.S. exports.
Egg prices fell by 5.8 percent from February to March and are expected to be
down by as much as 10 percent this year over 2015, when Midwest poultry
production was hard hit by the avian flu outbreak. Beef prices rose about
1 percent in March but they are still down 5.1 percent last year, because
of declining exports that have boosted domestic supplies. Pork prices are down
5.6 percent year over year.
Troubling farm finance data from the Kansas City Fed. In more bad news for
the farm sector, repayment rates of farm loans dropped in the first quarter of
2016 even as new bank loans to farmers remained strong, according to a reportpublished
Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. A driving factor, said the
report’s authors, was depressed prices.
“Large loans used to finance operating expenses remained the primary driver of
demand for non-real estate loans,” the report concluded. “Although returns at
agricultural banks generally remained strong, delinquency rates on farm loans ticked
up, and loan repayment rates dipped, as persistently weak profit margins in the
farm sector continued to intensify the challenge of maintaining adequate cash
flow.”
Catfish is a big topic for Vilsack in Vietnam. Vietnam’s prime minister
and the ministers of agriculture, trade, and commerce have all met with USDA
Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss the country’s attempt to meet USDA’s food
safety standards as the department takes over inspection authority for imports
from the FDA.
Vietnam will be required to show that its food safety systems are generally
equivalent to those in the U.S. by Sept. 1, 2017, for the country to be allowed
to continue to export to the U.S., and Vietnam has reached out for help,
Vilsack told reporters in a teleconference Monday.
“They have recently provided to us a number of issues or areas that they think
they will need technical assistance in, and we reached an agreement to provide
help and assistance in all five of the areas they have identified.”
ICYMI: The North American Agricultural Journalists presented Agri-Pulse with
the Audrey Mackiewicz Special Award last night at the group’s annual banquet at
the National Press Club. The award honors the association’s first woman
president and long-time Executive Secretary-Treasurer and is given to
publications who have expanded their coverage of agriculture. Agri-Pulse now
has the largest group of editors devoted to covering agriculture, food and
rural issues on Capitol Hill.
She said it: “Anything is possible and that is our goal.” That was USTR
Chief Agricultural Negotiator Darci Vetter responding to the question of
whether or not the U.S. and EU could wrap up T-TIP negotiations this year. She
did, however, stress that it would be up to the next presidential
administration to get it through Congress.
#30
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