US Growers Fearful of Pacific Partnership Agreement

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 06/25/2012

Several North Carolina agricultural organizations have called on the Obama administration and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to ensure that tobacco and other agriculture commodities are treated fairly in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The organizations convened in Durham last week for the US Tobacco Forum, called to discuss the future of tobacco growing in the US. The president's trade team is currently negotiating the TPP agreement with eight other Pacific Rim nations: Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. This comprehensive regional trade agreement could have a long-standing impact on the US economy and future trade agreements. Anti-tobacco advocates and some politicians in Washington are said to have been pressuring the Obama administration to discriminate against the tobacco industry; a development that NC tobacco growers say will ultimately threaten jobs and impose undue hardship and economic impacts on US farm families. At issue, they say, is a so-called ‘safe harbor' proposal for tobacco regulations that would create a loophole in the TPP and encourage foreign governments to impose arbitrary and draconian restrictions on tobacco that are not grounded in sound science. This, the farmers say, would harm the ability of US producers to compete, while placing farm families at risk. A bipartisan group of policymakers at federal and state level has weighed in strongly with the Obama administration, saying that tobacco should not be discriminated against in the TPP. Enditem