INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — With trade agreements that could affect most of the nation’s farmers nearing completion, the Obama administration and USDA are encouraging Congress to restore Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to aid the process of finishing free trade pacts – including the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP).
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator Phil Karsting spoke to Indiana agricultural organization leaders about the importance of TPA on Feb. 18 in Indianapolis.
"I’m making the rounds," he said, noting he has also visited California and Louisiana, and plans to talk to ag leaders in upstate New York and possibly Nebraska. "We anticipate (TPA) will come before Congress sometime in the next several weeks.
"We’re trying to build up awareness of the importance for trade promotion authority. TPA has been around for every president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It’s time for TPA to be updated to reflect the modern times, modern technology, modern circumstances."
"But at the end of the day, TPA really helps our negotiators get the best deal possible in our negotiations with foreign countries – and for agriculture, it couldn’t be more important. We want a trade environment where we have lower tariffs and lower barriers; better adherence to science; and transparency, and that has been our fundamental guiding point in all of these negotiations," Karsting added.
Regarding the 12-country TPP, which includes negotiations with Australia, Japan, Mexico, Chile and Vietnam, Karsting said it is hoped the deal can be finished this year. "The negotiations drive the deadline, not the other way around," he explained. "But we feel confident where we are, that we have the makings of a good agreement. Particularly where agriculture is concerned, we’ll be better off with it than without it."
It’s in these final stages of negotiation that TPA is most important, he said. "Having TPA certainly strengthens our negotiations. In any negotiation, some of the most difficult issues are left to the end; and (TPA gives) an added boost for our negotiators to be able to say we can deliver, that we’ve got a process in place to move a final deal."
Kyle Cline, National Policy advisor for Indiana Farm Bureau, appreciates Karsting’s efforts to bring to inform state ag groups of the importance of TPA. "I think it was an important opportunity for all the various commodity organizations and all the farmers we represent to voice our strong support for things like trade promotion authority, as well as the two trade agreements that are being negotiated right now (TPP and T-TIP)," he said.
"What I heard was that the administration remains committed to TPA and to bringing these trade agreements to conclusion, and we’re encouraged by that."
He noted the importance of TPA in closing international deals. "There’s a fear from the other countries’ perspective that without TPA that we lack the political will and commitment in our country to make these, to finalize these trade agreements and really do it in a timely manner," Cline said.
"At the same time, what the TPA does, it provides a transparency in the process and provides a framework for our negotiators, for our president and administration, as well as members of Congress. And that gives the general public a sense of what is expected to finalize and get to the finish line on these trade agreements."
Third-generation Allen County farmer Don Wyss, board vice president of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, was encouraged by what he heard from Karsting.
"I think the main point is how essential it is to pass the TPA," he said. "We need to promote and encourage all active free trade around the world. It’s important that we as a state encourage the promotion of agricultural products. Whether its corn, soybeans, soybean meal or livestock products, anything we can do to promote the export of agricultural products out of the state of Indiana is only going to benefit the state."
Karsting said persuading local farmers of the importance of international trade is getting easier. "I think there’s a growing appreciation in American agriculture for the importance of trade," he said. "You look 20 years ago, in the dairy sector, we weren’t exporting very much; now one day’s worth of production every week is exported. Every other row of soybeans gets exported. Our beef, our pork, our poultry, new products like distillers’ dried grains, are exported now.
"So, when people think about it, they come to appreciate the importance of trade to their rural communities and the bottom line. The challenge for me is to get people to think about it."
Karsting also addressed concerns about power being granted by the legislative branch to the executive.
"What we have done in these negotiations, particularly where TPP is concerned, is we have followed the consultation requirements in the expired TPA," he said. "We’ve had 1,600 consultations with committees in Congress. The text of the proposals that are out there – although those aren’t widely circulated – members of Congress can actually go and read those. We’ve done a pretty robust amount of consultation, and that’s the way trade negotiations have always been."
