Potentially good news for potato growers as word gets out that the Trump administration has begun talks with Japan to eliminate tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles says they’ve been on this for quite a while.

“Since it became obvious that there was going to be a negotiation, specifically with Japan, we have been pushing the administration. Members of Congress have certainly been weighing in and wanting to make this market access for U.S. fresh product, fresh potatoes, part of whatever negotiated settlement comes out of this tariff volatility.”

Getting fresh potato access into Japan, Quarles says, would be incredible.

“If we can get that access, the estimates are it would add about $150 million a year in new U.S. ag exports. But we’ve got to get past the protectionism within Japan, and that’s a tall order.”

Quarles says years and years of talks have produced virtually nothing.

“Clearly, I think the Japanese would prefer to continue to negotiate on this thing until the end of time. They’ve been doing it for two decades now, and they’d like to just repeat that.”

Quarles says Japan is part of a larger agreement.

“The countries that were formally in what was known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which the U.S. negotiated but then never signed, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines, were looking to restore the tariff benefits that existed within that agreement, which would make it that much easier for potato products and, specifically, frozen products be able to reach those markets.”

Quarles says, given the export dependence of the U.S. potato industry, there are substantial concerns about tariffs impairing access to these valuable trading partners.