White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced Monday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is dead. A memorandum signed by President Donald Trump withdrawing from the proposed trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim nations was largely symbolic, because it was never ratified due to congressional opposition. The TPP was strongly backed by the Obama administration.
If the deal had gone through, California fruit and nut growers could have raked in $562 million in sales thanks to lower tariffs or the elimination of tariffs, the American Farm Bureau estimated. Dairy producers could have potentially pulled in $53 million in added revenue, according to the Fresno Bee.
On the campaign trail President Trump promised to kill the deal, so it’s not exactly a surprise. But that doesn’t mean it’s easier for California’s agriculture sector to swallow.
California Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger says the state’s farmers want access to Asia’s growing middle-class markets.
“Unfortunately, we have never had real good access to a lot of those markets. They come with some pretty significant tariffs or non-tariff trade barriers. So TPP for agriculture was a way to break down some of those barriers and give us access to the world consumer,” Wenger says.