Australians and the people of 11 other countries are not allowed to know details of the draft Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement…but US catfish farmers are, and they are lobbying furiously to impose non-tariff barriers to maintain a traditional domestic dominance of the market.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam recent proposed a Senate motion to force TPP details to be detailed to the Australian Parliament and people before Australia signs the agreement. However, the Coalition and Labor combined to vote down what CLA believes was a sensible proposal.
Negotiators – including the Australian government under both major parties – have been keeping drafts of the proposed treaty secret for many years: no-one is formally allowed to know what is included, or the detailed text. However, WikiLeaks revealed details of one chapter of the agreement online this week, as the SMH’s Philip Dorling reported: http://tiny.cc/g7uk6w
Now the NYT is reporting that the US catfish farmers have their whiskers twisted because Vietnam may benefit from the TPP by being able to deliver cheaper catfish to the US market.
The US farmers are lobbying for the introduction of a non-tariff, additional inspection barrier – much more extensive and expensive than currently exists – to make sure they retain their declining market share. As is usual with US trade, American producers are prepared for market forces to apply, provided all the rules and regulations are twisted to their benefit.
The duplicate catfish inspection program at the Agriculture Department has its roots in a 2008 farm bill provision won by Southern lawmakers, primarily Senator Thad Cochran, a Republican from America’s No. 1 catfish-producing state, Mississippi.
Mr. Cochran, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, argued along with the catfish industry that imported catfish had to be subject to rigorous inspections and that the Food and Drug Administration should not be involved.
Unspoken in the catfish dispute is an Agriculture Department regulation requiring that any country that exports meat or poultry products to the United States set up a domestic inspection system for that food that is equivalent to America’s — an expensive and burdensome regulation that Vietnam says is unnecessary for catfish.
In addition to the United States and Vietnam, countries in the TPP talks are Australia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand. Together they account for about 40% of the world economy, the New York Times reported recently. http://tinyurl.com/o6elfkw
The full text of the leaked negotiating text can by found at: www.wikileaks.org Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/trade-deal-could-be-bitter-medicine-20131113-2xh4p.html#ixzz2kh56GNAw