The national dairy organisations of Australia, New Zealand and the US have published a joint appeal highlighting the need for improved dairy outcomes under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.
Australian Dairy Industry Council chair Noel Campbell said the TPP offered an historic opportunity to address a whole range of distortions and ensure that consumers throughout the region had access to the safe, high quality products available from the three countries.
“However, for this deal to be commercially meaningful, markets like Canada and Japan must demonstrate that they are prepared to significantly increase their existing dairy market access positions,” Mr Campbell said.
The organisations say sustained economic and population growth is driving an increase in dairy demand for the Asia-Pacific, but to take full advantage of this unprecedented opportunity, TPP must be ambitious, comprehensive and commercially meaningful.
“While the are some positive indications of progress being made, vital issues are still to be addressed in Japan to ensure that the Australian dairy industry can improve its competitive positioning in that key market,” Mr Campbell said.
Focused dairy market access negotiations with Canada are also of particular concern.
“It is imperative that Canada provide significantly increased market openings for all dairy products if it is to remain a participant in the treaty,” Mr Campbell said.
While traditional tariff barriers remain widespread for dairy products, trade is also restricted by more subtle trade distorting non-tariff measures such as the European Union’s aggressive stance on Geographical Indications, as demonstrated in their trade agreement with Canada.
The Australian, New Zealand and US dairy industries all expect that the TPP will also address these non-tariff barriers, especially in the Japanese and Canadian markets where these restrictions are most pervasive.
“Our respective industries each have additional criteria by which we will judge the final TPP outcome, but the points detailed above are commonly shared as key priorities across the region’s largest dairy trading countries,” Mr Campbell said.
The US, New Zealand, and Australian dairy industry associations are committed to a transformative outcome that provides opportunity for our farmers and processors, and look forward to working with all participants of the TPP to reach a successful conclusion.
The TPP is a multi-country Free Trade Agreement (FTA) now under negotiation between Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Japan, the United States, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada.
