Posted April 21, 2014
 
Japan and Australia recently reached a bilateral trade deal, agreeing to lower import tariffs on several products including beef, dairy, and automobiles, according to an article by the Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest available here.
 
Some now question what impact this trade deal will have on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations which are set to resume this week.
 
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has “made deepening Asian ties one of the main focuses of his prime ministership, particularly given the high reliance his country has on trade from the region.  China, Japan, and South Korea together account for 55 percent of Australia’s total bilateral trade.”
 
US negotiators have been working for months to reach a deal with Japan over agriculture and automobile tariffs, but have had limited progress. 
 
Some say the Australia-Japan deal damages the TPP, according to an article by Agri-Pulse available here.  National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Bob McCan said his organization is “deeply concerned” and that the deal “only pushes the high-standing ideals of the TPP further out of reach for all countries involved.”
 
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) called for Japan to eliminate all tariff and non-tariff trade barriers for US agricultural products, saying “If the United States meets Japan’s demands, it would be a radical departure from past U.S. trade agreements and would open the door to tariff line exemptions from other countries in the TPP and in future U.S. trade deals.”
 
Meat and poultry groups recently thanked President Obama for his administration’s “strong stance” on agricultural tariffs in TPP negotiations.  “We appreciate that, in the latest round of talks in Tokyo on a [TPP] agreement, your representatives did not capitulate to Japan’s continuing attempt to maintain protectionist barriers to our products,” the groups wrote.
 

 

For more information on international trade, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
 
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