NPPC backs Japan joining TPP

The National Pork Producers Council today welcomed Japan’s announcement that it would like to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership multi-lateral trade talks.

The TPP would be a regional trade bloc, consisting of Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

“The U.S. pork industry strongly supports Japan’s entry into the TPP, and NPPC urges the United States and the other TPP countries to accede to Japan’s request,” said NPPC President Doug Wolf, a pork producer from Lancaster, Wis. “Pork producers would gain tremendous market opportunities with Japan as part of the TPP.”

Japan already has free trade agreements with six of the nine TPP countries: Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Japan is the No. 1 market for the U.S. pork industry. In 2010, the United States exported $1.65 billion of pork to Japan and in the first nine months of 2011 has shipped $1.44 billion.

"Japan is our top market, but that market can be expanded through the TPP,” Wolf said. “And expanding existing markets and opening new ones are vital to the continued profitability of U.S. pork producers.”

The U.S. pork industry last year exported nearly $4.8 billion of pork, an amount that added about $56 to the price producers received for each hog marketed.

Source: NPPC