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Could U.S. rejoin TPP?

U.S. farm and commodity groups are hopeful that President Trump was serious when he said he was open to rejoining the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

But is that possible, now that the other 11 TPP countries have moved on without the U.S.?

“I think if the U.S. went back to the table and said, ‘we want to be in’, I would be willing to bet all 11 signatories would say, ‘yes, come back in’,” says Brian Kuehl, executive director of Farmers for Free Trade. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t.”

Kuehl says TPP was a good deal for U.S. agriculture, “and we shouldn’t be standing on the sidelines”.

Brownfield asked Canada’s deputy ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, if the U.S. could join the renamed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

“Anything’s possible,” Hillman said. “You know, that’s really a question for the U.S. government. The United States is our biggest trading partner, our most important trading partner, our closest ally—and any place where they want to have a conversation with us, we want to have a conversation with them.”

The remaining TPP countries recently signed off the CPTPP agreement, but ratification by all signatories could take several months to complete.