NMPF Insists on Total Exclusion of U.S.-New Zealand Dairy Trade in TPP
February 3, 2010
NMPF Insists on Total Exclusion of U.S.-New Zealand Dairy Trade in TPP
In a letter sent last week to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), NMPF again pressed for full exclusion of New Zealand’s dairy products in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This new U.S. trade initiative would include New Zealand, Vietnam, and Brunei, as well as four existing U.S. FTA partners: Australia, Chile, Singapore, and Peru.
Although NMPF believed in the importance of balanced trade and in the potential for well-negotiated trade agreements to benefit the U.S. dairy industry as a whole, each agreement must be judged on its own merits.
A U.S.-New Zealand TPP would negatively impact the U.S. dairy industry. NMPF estimated that milk prices received by producers would drastically drop and gross revenues received by U.S. dairy farmers would plunge by a cumulative $20 billion over the first 10 years of the FTA if U.S. dairy restrictions on exports from New Zealand were fully phased out in the TPP FTA.
Nearly 50 House members of the Congressional Dairy Farmer Caucus also sent a letter to USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk expressing their support for exclusion of U.S.-New Zealand dairy trade under the TPP.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) will hold a hearing in March on the economic impact of this new FTA. NMPF has already met with ITC staff about their analysis and plans to testify at the hearing.
