Wheat Growers Worried About TPP Without U.S.

Associations representing U.S. wheat growers are concerned a revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that does not include the United States puts overseas demand for U.S. wheat at serious risk.

 “On January 23, 2017, exactly one year ago, President Trump announced the United States would pull out of the TPP. The announcement today that the eleven remaining TPP members have concluded talks on a revised deal without us sends another discouraging signal to our long-time wheat importing customers in Japan,” said Ben Conner, USW Director of Policy.

 Japan imports an average of 3.1 million metric tons of U.S. wheat every year. After full implementation of the new TPP, Japan’s import tariffs on Canadian and Australian wheat would drop by about $65 per ton.

 “As expected, the remaining members of TPP are moving forward without the United States,” said Gordon Stoner, NAWG President and a wheat grower from Outlook, Mont. “If nothing else, this announcement should serve as a rallying cry for farmers, ranchers and dairy producers calling for the new trade deals we were promised when the president walked away from TPP.”

 The so-called TPP-11 countries include Canada and Australia, which are major competitors to the U.S. in the Japanese wheat market. Other TPP countries with rapidly growing demand for imported wheat include Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, Chile and Peru. Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand round out the remaining TPP partner countries.

Source: U.S. Wheat Associates