Pork producers to key TPA vote, explain why
June 18, 2015 |01:19 PM
The National Pork Producers Council said Wednesday it would score the votes today on the procedural rule to set parameters on debate and consideration of the bill to grant President Barack Obama and his successor trade promotion authority and on final passage of TPA, because overseas sales have become so important to pork producers.
NPPC noted that it periodically chooses issues and legislation that are of paramount importance to pork producers, makes those votes part of a score on each senator and House member and then makes the scores public so voters have the information when determining candidates in the next election.
“The U.S. pork industry, U.S. agriculture, indeed the entire U.S. economy needs TPA, and we need it soon,” said NPPC President Ron Prestage. “And if House lawmakers vote against the TPA rule and/or TPA, we’ll hold them accountable.”
Since 1989 — the year the United States began using bilateral and regional trade agreements to open foreign markets — pork exports have increased 1,550 percent in value and 1,268 percent in volume, NPPC said.
The United States shipped more than $6.6 billion of pork to international destinations in 2014, NPPC said. The U.S. pork industry exports more pork to the 20 countries with which the United States has free trade agreements than to the rest of the nations combined, the group added.
The key reason TPA is needed, Prestage said, is for concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations among the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries.
According to Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes, the TPP deal would be the most significant commercial opportunity ever for U.S. pork producers, generating more than 10,000 U.S. jobs tied to pork exports.
“U.S. trade negotiators will have the final leverage they need to close the TPP negotiations when Congress passes TPA,” said Prestage. “It will allow nations to cut to their bottom line negotiating position in TPP.”
Prestage said that “each and every one of the free trade agreements that got us that tremendous growth in exports were made possible by the enactment of trade promotion authority bills.”
Failure to pass TPA would send a signal to the world that the United States is turning its back on the Asia-Pacific region — the fastest growing area in the world — and allowing other countries to write the rules for international trade, Prestage said.
NPPC noted that it periodically chooses issues and legislation that are of paramount importance to pork producers, makes those votes part of a score on each senator and House member and then makes the scores public so voters have the information when determining candidates in the next election.
“The U.S. pork industry, U.S. agriculture, indeed the entire U.S. economy needs TPA, and we need it soon,” said NPPC President Ron Prestage. “And if House lawmakers vote against the TPA rule and/or TPA, we’ll hold them accountable.”
Since 1989 — the year the United States began using bilateral and regional trade agreements to open foreign markets — pork exports have increased 1,550 percent in value and 1,268 percent in volume, NPPC said.
The United States shipped more than $6.6 billion of pork to international destinations in 2014, NPPC said. The U.S. pork industry exports more pork to the 20 countries with which the United States has free trade agreements than to the rest of the nations combined, the group added.
The key reason TPA is needed, Prestage said, is for concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations among the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries.
According to Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes, the TPP deal would be the most significant commercial opportunity ever for U.S. pork producers, generating more than 10,000 U.S. jobs tied to pork exports.
“U.S. trade negotiators will have the final leverage they need to close the TPP negotiations when Congress passes TPA,” said Prestage. “It will allow nations to cut to their bottom line negotiating position in TPP.”
Prestage said that “each and every one of the free trade agreements that got us that tremendous growth in exports were made possible by the enactment of trade promotion authority bills.”
Failure to pass TPA would send a signal to the world that the United States is turning its back on the Asia-Pacific region — the fastest growing area in the world — and allowing other countries to write the rules for international trade, Prestage said.
