Trade Talks with Japan Key in Event TPP Fails
CANADA - The Chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board says, in the event the Trans-Pacific Partnership collapses, it will be important for Canada reinvigorate efforts to achieve a bilateral trade agreement with Japan, writes Bruce Cocrane.
6 December 2016
3 minute read
By: The recent US election has cast a shadow of doubt on the future of the 12 nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
Florian Possberg, the Chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board, says, if the TPP fails, Canada will need to takes steps to ensure trade with Japan continues.
Florian Possberg-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
We really need to maintain our ability to export pork to southeast Asia, particularly Japan.
Japan is our number one value customer and Japan was part of the TPP talks as well as Canada and so, if the TPP has a problem to get to the finish line, we really need to make sure that we have an acceptable agreement with Japan.
Japan imports pork from many countries but the big advantage that we have in Canada and the United States is that they prefer high quality product which is typically fresh chilled product.
It's problematic to get fresh chilled from Europe for example to Japan and even Brazil and so we do have a leg up in the fresh chilled market in Japan.
How Japan and the United States are going to end up if there's no TPP is a big question mark but certainly we need to take care of our own business and make sure we have a real good deal with the Japanese in Canada.
Possberg says, there was a lot of rhetoric during the U.S. election campaign but, at the end of the day, he's confident the United States will realize that they have to maintain significant levels of trade to maintain their economy.
