The 12th round of talks on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership are underway this week in Brussels. Nick Giordano, National Pork Producer Council Vice President of Global Government Affairs, says the talks continue to move slowly as there many outstanding trade issues to work out with the European Union involving pork, beef and poultry trade.

He says there are also many non-tariff trade barriers that must be negotiated to get to an agreement on agricultural issues.

Giordano says it’s in the best interest of the European Union to negotiate and conclude the free trade agreement with the United States. However, he thinks it’ll be a heavy lift to reach a final and viable TTIP agreement.

He says to the credit of the Obama administration, they’re not rushing to conclude a bad deal and NPPC is weighing in to make sure that doesn’t happen.