News

Lighthizer on bilateral trade deals for ag

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer says he’s in meetings with Japan and other countries about the formation of bilateral trade deals and says President Trump is fully supportive of that.  Lighthizer met with House Ag Committee leaders and the U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue Wednesday about expanding U.S. Ag trade in the world.

In a roundtable discussion, House Ag Committee chairman Mike Conaway said the U.S. has to start separate agreements with the Trans Pacific Partnership countries, since the U.S. was pulled out of the deal by President Trump. Lighthizer said most of the ground work with those eleven TPP countries has already been done and that will make the process easier.

However, the Trade Rep says it’s unclear how engaged Japan wants to be moving forward.  Better access to that market was a high point of the TPP deal for agriculture. The American Farm Bureau Federation had estimated tariff cuts agreed to in the TPP would have netted farmers an additional $4-billion dollars a year.

Lighthizer attended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Vietnam last weekend, in which trade ministers from the remaining TPP countries said they are working on ways to bring the agreement to fruition.