Ag keeping a skeptical eye on T-TIP talks
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2016 - U.S. trade negotiators are in
New York City this week for a round of talks on the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (T-TIP), hoping to make progress on a trade agreement
that would cross the Atlantic Ocean in a similar way the Obama administration’s
trade efforts have already crossed the Pacific.
Based on where negotiations stand right now, many in
agriculture are doubtful that issues they have with T-TIP and the European
Union will be addressed to their satisfaction before a new president takes
office in January.
“I’m personally skeptical,” Tom Sleight, president and CEO of
the U.S. Grains Council, said of prospects for completing T-TIP under the Obama
administration. “A lot is going to have to happen in a short amount of time for
that to be the case.”
Agri-Pulse spoke
with a number of Washington agricultural leaders on Monday, and a broad feeling
of measured hope filled the conversations. Many groups are behind trade
agreements, but are worried that a deal that goes far enough to appease the EU
will go too far for U.S. agriculture.
“If this looks like it’s playing out and heading towards an
EU-style deal, I would expect a very strong backlash from U.S. agriculture,”
Nick Giordano, vice president and counsel for global government affairs with
the National Pork Producers Council, told Agri-Pulse.
“NPPC’s position would be the same as most in agriculture: We’re
supportive of the T-TIP negotiations if and only if we’re headed to an outcome
that looks like the other U.S. (free trade agreements),” Giordano continued.
“If we’re not, then we’re in the danger zone and that’s a problem, and NPPC – I
expect – and others are going to be saying, ‘Hey, why are we wasting our time
with the European Union, when we can be expanding (the Trans-Pacific Partnership).’”
Giordano pointed to ag and food regulations already in place
in the EU that are unfriendly to common practices in U.S. agriculture, like the
use of biotechnology and antibiotics, as reasons for his skepticism. And he
isn’t alone.
“Any product that is safe enough for Americans should be
safe enough for Europeans,” Kent Bacus, with the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association, told Agri-Pulse. “We
need that kind of equivalency and that kind of understanding because there’s
really no reason why we shouldn’t be able to sell the same beef to European
consumers that we sell right here in the United States.”
The concerns have also made their way to Capitol Hill, where
last week 26 senators sent a letter
to U.S. trade negotiators calling on them “to continue to fight for a T-TIP
agreement that prioritizes U.S. agriculture, including the removal of
non-science based regulatory barriers and the reduction and removal of tariffs
on agricultural products.”
In the dairy sector, Chris Galen with the National Milk
Producers Federation said his board has “seen nothing so far that would
alleviate the concerns we have” with T-TIP. “Unless we get some better
negotiations and better agreements than what we’ve seen so far with T-TIP,
we’ve got some real concerns.”
One agricultural organization that seems to be a little
warmer to this agreement than others is also nearly alone in its opposition to
TPP: the National Farmers Union. Chandler Goule, NFU’s chief lobbyist, says
that NFU is “hoping to position ourselves as one of the go-to organizations” on
T-TIP negotiations, noting that NFU policies are much closer ideologically to
the EU than many of their U.S. ag organization counterparts.
Goule added that he doesn’t think negotiations on the T-TIP
agriculture chapters have started, and he anticipates agriculture topics will
be addressed toward the end of the talks “because that’s going to be where some
of the bigger stumbling blocks will be.”
#30
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