Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, now the U.S. agriculture secretary, is in Vietnam today to meet with officials to discuss the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a controversial pact supporters say will improve U.S. exports.
Vietnam remains one of the fastest-growing markets for U.S. food and agricultural products, with U.S. exports totaling $2.3 billion in 2015 -- up 375 percent from 2007, Vilsack's office reported.
Vietnam is the United States' 11th-largest agricultural export market, and top products include soybeans, a major Iowa crop. In 2015, the United States exported $32.3 million of beef and beef products to Vietnam, along with $168 million in dairy products, $100 million in poultry and eggs, and $3.8 million in pork and pork products.
Vietnam has negotiated free trade agreements with U.S. competitors such as Australia, Chile, Korea and New Zealand. The country now is negotiating with China, the European Union, Hong Kong and Israel. In these negotiations, Vietnam has agreed to tariff reductions on many agricultural products, potentially putting U.S. exporters at a disadvantage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.
Vietnam's average tariff on agricultural products is 16 percent, while the average U.S. tariff is 5 percent, according to the USDA. Under the TPP, Vietnam will reduce and eventually eliminate tariffs across a broad range of food and agricultural products, helping put U.S. exports on a level playing field and giving the United States a leg up on non-TPP competitors.
Source: http://www.businessrecord.com
Keywords: Vilsack, in Vietnam, for TPP negotiations
