President Obama travels to Japan for a meeting tomorrow with Japan’s Prime Minister. 60 House members and the National Pork Producers Council have asked the President to press Japan on bringing their tariffs to zero in the Trans Pacific Partnership talks and come in line with the eleven other countries in the agreement. NPPC President Dr. Howard Hill says if Japan doesn’t do that, they should be left out of the agreement.
Hill says even with the President’s trip to Japan, for TPP to be successful it will take action by Congress to pass fast track or trade promotion authority.
Hill says TPP is a very critical agreement because of all the economic possibilities that are at stake.
In their letter to the President and U.S. Trade Representative the House members noted that accepting Japan’s demands on the 500 plus exemptions would be inconsistent with U.S. requests in previous trade deals.
