Opposition to Trade by Presidential Candidates Concerns Pork Industry
At this point, the leading candidates for President are opposed to, or at least luke warm on, agricultural trade. This is a situation about which the U.S. pork industry is quite worried. Early in her campaign, Hillary Clinton was in favor of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, but now she has come out against the treaty. Donald Trump, while in Nebraska, was talking about beef trade with Japan but remains opposed to TPP which would help open up the Japanese market.
Dave Warner, with the National Pork Producers Council, is concerned about these anti-trade positions, stating the TPP is a good deal for the pork industry and for America as a whole, “In almost every case, the free trade agreement is more beneficial to the US than to any other country. These nations have better access to the U.S. market than we have to theirs. The trade agreement fixes that.”
Warner points out that history has proven that American farmers benefit from trade agreements and that the pork industry is a prime example, “U.S. pork producers export more pork to the 20 countries with which we have a free trade agreement than to all the other countries of the world combined.” He added that not getting TPP would be a huge loss for the U.S. pork industry.
It looks unlikely that the TPP agreement will be dealt with by the current Congress, thus it is likely a new Congress and new administration will decide the fate of the TPP. Warner stated, “I hope that, when they get elected, they will see the reality of the situation and change their mind.” He adds that the TPP allows U.S. pork access to half a billion people in the fastest growing economic region of the world.