Farmscape for July 12, 2017

In the wake of a newly announced free trade agreement between the European Union and Japan the Canadian Meat Council is urging the federal government to make every effort to resurrect the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Last week the European Union and Japan announced an agreement in principle on a new free trade deal.
Ron Davidson, the Director of International Trade, Government and Media Relations with Canadian Meat Council, says there is a concern that Canada may lose competitiveness in Japan when that agreement is signed similar to what happened when South Korea signed an agreement a few years ago with the U.S.

Clip-Ron Davidson-Canadian Meat Council:
There have been a couple discussions at the ministerial level and there have also been discussions at the negotiator level.
There will be another meeting of the 11 countries next week in Japan and certainly the Canadian agri-food sector generally is pressing very hard for the Canadian government to take some leadership and try and find a resolution to the withdrawal of the United States from the TPP.
From what we understand from the Europeans, the message that's coming out of Europe, Europe has gained the kind of meaningful access to Japan which was provided for by the TPP.
We're hopeful that either the TPP 11 or even TPP 12 will recognize the severe disadvantage which they will be placing their countries at if we can not move forward quickly and remain competitive with Europe in that major very important Japanese market.

Davidson says free trade discussions between Canada and Japan were well advanced when they were set aside in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and failure to move forward on the TPP means there's a billion dollar market in meat products that's at risk for Canadian exporters
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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