Dairy organizations from the U.S. have collaborated with dairy groups from Australia and New Zealand to issue a joint letter to their respective trade and agricultural officials that requests an “ambitious, comprehensive and commercially meaningful” resolution in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).
USDA has released data outlining the agricultural opportunities of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and how it would help boost agricultural exports for all 50 states.
Following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) said it is encouraged the president’s call to pass legislation reauthorize Trade Promotion Authority was welcomed with bipartisan support from members of Congress,
The long-running sugar wars between the US and Mexico appear to be over. The Commerce Department announced the two governments have reached an agreement to suspend the ongoing anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations of sugar from Mexico. Phillip Hayes, a spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance, says the final agreement appears to achieve the group’s goal—stopping the dumping of sugar, subsidized by the Mexican government, into the US market.
The US dairy industry has reached out to US government agricultural trade negotiators to inform them that their efforts on any final Pacific Rim free trade agreement must put access to foreign markets for US dairy farmers first and avoid pressure from other countries to regionalize all new market access opportunities in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Members of USDA, Congress and President Barack Obama joined African heads of state and government leaders this week for the first-ever African Leaders summit to determine ways that would enhance trade between the US and Africa.
USDA recently released state fact sheets detailing the importance of agriculture trade. The state-specific fact sheets include each state’s top five agricultural exports in 2012 and the number of US jobs created by agriculture.
Representatives from FDA and the government of Mexico’s National Service for Agro-Alimentary Public Health, Safety and Quality (SENASICA) and Federal Commission for the Protection from Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) have signed a statement of intent to form a partnership promoting the safety of fresh and minimally processed agricultural products.
Organic processed products certified in the US or Korea are now able to carry an organic label in either country after an arrangement between the two countries went into effect July 1.
A coalition of US food, agriculture and manufacturing industries are asking legislative leaders in the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to suspend the US Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) rule if the World Trade Organization (WTO) finds it noncompliant with US trade obligations.