Farmscape for March 18, 2018

The National Pork Producers Council is calling for action that will reduce the expected loss of U.S. markets for pork in nations that have signed on to the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Eleven of the Original 12 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have agreed to move forward with a multilateral free trade agreement without the United States.
National Pork Producers Council Senior Communications Director Jim Monroe says U.S. pork producers were very disappointed when the United States pulled out of the original TPP and the United States is in jeopardy of losing export markets in Asia which is a top destination for U.S. pork, in particular Japan.

Clip-Jim Monroe-National Pork Producers Council:
Our number one priority in the U.S. pork industry is maintaining and expanding export opportunities.
We continue to advocate very aggressively with the Trump administration, with members of the Congress in that way.
Recently the Trump administration has opened the door to the U.S. possibly rejoining the new TPP agreement.
We would obviously be very supportive of that and we'll see how that evolves.
The administration has indicated that it prefers bilateral trade agreements so we continue to urge the initiation of negotiations for new free trade agreements with important markets like Japan and others in the Asia-Pacific region like the Philippines and Vietnam and others.
Again that region of the world is a big consumer of pork.
We have the highest quality, safest, most affordable pork product in the world and we're eager to compete on a level playing field in markets around the world that have demand for our product.

Monroe notes five new U.S, pork plants have either recently gone on line or will soon go on line and export markets are needed to support that growth.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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