Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 1/26/15

The National Pork Producers Council voiced its support for providing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, sending a letter to each Congressional legislator urging the passage of legislation that would renew TPA, the organization said in a news release.

TPA was one of the priorities that President Obama laid out in his most recent State of the Union speech. Congress has granted TPA to every president since 1974, with the most recent law being approved in August 2002 and expiring June 30, 2007, NPPC pointed out.

Trade Promotion Authority speeds the trade negotiation process by providing negotiators with more leeway to reach agreement with trading partners, using Congressional goals as a guide. Congress votes on proposed trade agreements in their entirety, without amendments or adjustments.

TPA is at the forefront of many meat processors’ minds because of the industry’s growing reliance on exports, and because major trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, appear to have stalled out and need to be jump-started.

“The U.S. pork industry is the poster child for expanded trade,” said NPPC President Howard Hill, a pork producer from Cambridge, Iowa. Pork exports have increased 1,550 percent in value and 1,268 percent in volume since 1989, the year the U.S. implemented the FTA with Canada and started opening international markets for value-added agriculture products, NPPC’s release noted.

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