Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 7/18/18
European leaders and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed a broad economic partnership on Tuesday and told reporters the deal was a way to counter intensifying protectionism worldwide.
According to the Japan Times, the talks started in 2013 and had stagnated, but regained momentum after President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
“We are sending a clear message that we stand together against protectionism,” European Council President Donald Tusk said at a joint news conference with Abe after they signed the agreement. “Right now, concerns are rising over protectionism all around the world. We are sending out a message emphasizing the importance of a trade system based on free and fair rules,” he said.
The pact would create a free trade bloc accounting for roughly 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. Japan and the EU hope to have the agreement, which still needs to be ratified by both parties, come into force in 2019, the Japan Times reported.
The Trump administration is considering a 25 percent tariff on automobiles imported into the United States, a move that would impact both the EU and Japan.
Former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler told the newspaper the Japan/EU deal “reduces Japanese dependence on the U.S. market and thus increases its leverage to resist unreasonable trade demands by the United States.”
Meanwhile, addressing the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China in a broadcast interview yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue repeated earlier statements that USDA is working on ways to help farmers hurt by trade disruptions.
Purdue University economist Chris Hurt wrote in the FarmDocDaily newsletter that the pork industry appears to be headed for a period of large losses in which excess pork supplies force prices below costs of production, in part due to reduced exports from tariffs placed on U.S. pork exports to China and Mexico.
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