Trade Roundup: A Quick Trip Around the World

U.S. officials began talks in Beijing on Monday in an effort to end the trade dispute with China. The U.S. delegation, led by deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Gerrish, also includes Chief Agricultural Negotiator Gregg Doud, USDA Undersecretary Ted McKinney, and Treasury Undersecretary David Malpass.

If talks go well, it could lead to a meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

Negotiations with Japan could begin as soon as Jan. 20. The U.S. released its official negotiating objectives on Dec. 21, which included a call for “comprehensive market access” for American farm goods. Japanese farmers are politically influential and have long resisted opening the island nation to foreign ag products.

The 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership went into effect Dec. 30 for certain member nations. On that day, Tokyo began cutting tariffs and easing quotas on products sold by some of American agriculture’s biggest competitors, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Chile.

Progress on the new NAFTA, known now as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is stalled as part of the federal government shutdown. Learn more in the story below.

Amid the push-and-pull between the Trump administration and the European Union over whether food and farm issues will be included in future trade talks, American ag groups have warned Lighthizer that if agriculture is excluded, they won’t support the negotiations.

“Our organizations could not fairly represent our members if we were to support even the launching of negotiations with the EU on those terms,” wrote more than 50 agriculture industry groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, and prominent commodity groups such as the National Pork Producers and the U.S. Grains Council.

EU officials have insisted that agriculture will not be part of the talks, which are expected to kick off soon.

Sources: Politico, Wall Street Journal