Last week, the Trump Administration celebrated the signing of a partial bilateral trade deal with Japan. Agriculture concerns were addressed in this partial trade pact. The idea was to get agricultural exports to Japan back on an even playing field with the members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This has been accomplished, for the most part. A voice for the dairy industry says this agreement doesn?t give their industry the same level playing field as TPP would have.
The United States had been a part of TPP, but President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal when he took office. The President said the agreement was going to give all of agriculture a level playing field in Japan. However, former U.S. Agriculture Secretary and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack says the deal is not as good for the dairy industry as TPP would have been. There is still room for growth.
Vilsack is now the CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Federation. He says while there is room for growth, the news isn?t all bad. There are some advantages to the agreement.
Vilsack says there is still time for the U.S. and Japan to bolster dairy trade as they continue to work out more trade differences for a full bilateral trade agreement.
