A meeting aimed at finalizing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is set for the last week of July.
The meeting will take place in Hawaii and chief U.S. agricultural negotiator Darci Vetter says the top trade ministers from each nation will participate.
“It is a big one,” Vetter says. “All 12 TPP ministers will be coverging in Maui and we hope that we can take care of a lot of the remaining outstanding issues.”
Those issues for agriculture revolve mainly around greater access for U.S. farm products.
“We are negotiating bilaterally, with the different members at the table, our market access agreements and trying to open those markets to the fullest extent possible,” Vetter says. “Wherever possible, that means eliminating tariffs—but if we can’t get those tariffs to zero, we want to see how closely we can get and how much we can maximize our access to those markets.”
The TPP meeting is set for July 28-31.
Source: www.brownfieldagnews.com