Farmscape for August 12, 2015

The executive director of the Canadian Pork Council says Canadian participation as a founding member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership will open the door to expanded trade opportunities within the partnership, as well as opportunity for additional growth as membership grows.
Although representatives from the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership discussions failed to conclude an agreement last month, negotiations are expected to resume in September.
Canadian Pork Council executive director Martin Rice says it was disappointing to not see an agreement completed but he remains optimistic.

Clip-Martin Rice-Canadian Pork Council:
We tend to talk most about Japan when we talk about TPP and there's no question Japan is our most important market, likely even more than the United States, given the returns that have been on a very stable, predictable basis over time for our exporters that met the demanding Japanese requirements.
But there are other areas of the agreement which are quite important. Those include countries in the TPP to which there are important pork export opportunities and where tariffs would be significantly reduced, eliminated even. These would be countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia.
Another area that we would see being very important, and considering our participation in this agreement is that it is likely that other countries are going to be requesting to join and in that would include the Philippines, Thailand and even South Korea, which we have an FTA with. But if we are at this first original entry or original member of TPP, we will be in a position to negotiate accession of other countries.

Rice suggests Japan, other TPP members and then the potential for new entrants into the TPP are all extremely important for the pork sector.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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