From the WTO Doha Round to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the United States is finally providing some leadership in the trade policy arena and Clayton Yeutter couldn’t be happier. The former U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Agriculture is praising President Obama for waking up to the reality that foreign trade can accelerate the nation’s economic recovery:
“Well, the administration now that it’s finally interested in trade moves the Colombian, Panamanian, and South Korean agreements through the US Congress. Well, what it’s done is say that ‘we need to tweak these a little bit.’ And so, we’ve been ‘tweaking’ at the request of the labor unions, unfortunately, every time it’s tweaked, in Colombia, in particular, to satisfy the unions at this point, the bar gets raised. At some point they’ve got to stop tweaking, and start presenting this thing over to the US Congress and just say…”pass it!”
Speaking at an ag issues forum hosted by Bayer CropScience on the eve of the 2011 Commodity Classic in Tampa, Yeutter made an impassioned plea for approval of the Colombian FTA:
“From the standpoint of American Agriculture, we’re loosing sales every day of the week that that agreement is not supported. Colombia has gone on to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries; competitors of ours in agriculture, and our agriculture sales to Colombia are going down every day of the week, and sales to our competitors in the Colombian market are going up. We ought to know better.”
Yeutter called the Trans-Pacific Partnership potentially the most productive trade negotiation in the world today for U.S. agriculture because it would mean more market access in several fast-growing economies in Asia:
“That negotiation is moving along pretty well, and American agriculture has considerable to gain in Vietnam and Malaysia. But, the big gorilla in this regard, for American agriculture and for all of us, is Japan. And the issue is whether Japan joins the negotiation, and if it does, American agriculture is going to get very excited. Because they are still the third largest economy in the world, and there is still a lot of additional potential demand for agricultural products in Japan, if that market loosens up.”
According to Yeutter, the major players in the Doha Round are still a long way from finalizing a global trade pact in agriculture, industrial products and services. He complimented Deputy USTR Michael Punke, the top U.S. trade diplomat in Geneva, for, in his words, telling it like it is:
“What he’s basically saying is that the intransigents in this negotiation are Brazil, China and India. Not surprising… not surprisingly. They’re intransigents in a lot of negotiations. And Michael Punke, unfortunately is saying, ‘If you guys don’t get off your derrieres and make a positive contribution to the Doha Round, then we’re all just wasting our time'.”
Yeutter suggested that Washington should walk away from the multilateral talks if they don’t produce a subsidy and tariff-cutting accord by the end of this year.
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