Trade Negotiations High Risk for US Dairy

Trade Negotiations High Risk for US Dairy

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett
US Dairy farmers are watching closely as negotiations continue between Japan and the US on trade disputes over autos and agriculture.

Japan is a 300-million dollar market for US Dairy. Former Secretary of Agriculture and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council Tom Vilsack says that number is expected to grow to nearly a billion dollars over the next ten years. Vilsack to RFD TV that depends on a positive trade agreement being reached between the two nations.

"That's why we think it's important to have the administration continue negotiations with Japan and hopefully sometime late summer early fall the administration is in a position to talk about a mini agreement that opens up new opportunities. If we don't get that agreement and we continue to have the tariff differential that we see that will grow over time with New Zealand and the EU, then we could potentially lose a portion of our market share. So it's a pretty serious consequence and a great opportunity. So hopefully we're going to see some progress"

After President Trump pulled the United States out of the 12 nation Trans Pacific Partnership agreement TPP , the remaining nations negotiated a new trade agreement called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. That has been in effect offering lower tariffs to those nations since December 2018.

California, was the leading dairy producer. 40.4 billion pounds of milk were produced in 2018.

Colorado produced more than 4.5 billion pounds of milk in 2018

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