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Wheat groups concerned that CPTPP is moving forward without the US

Japan has ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the U.S. Wheat Associates and National Association of Wheat Growers say it will put farmers at a disadvantage.

US Wheat Associates President Vince Peterson says Canada and Australia, which are major competitors in the Japanese wheat market, have a lot to gain.

“So that’s going to hand over to our competitors in that market, which are Canada and Australia, essentially our share of that market which has exceeded 50 percent over a 60 year time period and that’s a big hit,” he says.

He tells Brownfield the groups were hopeful when President Trump said he would consider rejoining the agreement in April, but he doubts that will happen now. Instead, he says the administration should focus on a bilateral agreement with Japan.

“What we’d like to see them do is to use the negotiating skills that they have to resurrect some of the bilateral agreements that they talked about in the campaign- we don’t have any yet,” he says. “Japan would be a perfect country to bring into a bilateral negotiation.”

Japan is the second country to ratify the CPTPP, which could be implemented in 2019 after six of the 11 countries that signed the agreement have ratified it.

Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP in January 2017.

Audio: Vince Peterson, U.S. Wheat Associates