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Vilsack optimistic about U.S. – Japan “mini agreement”

Former U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is hopeful a mini trade agreement with Japan will happen this year. 

Vilsack, now CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, says once Japanese elections are completed later this month, negotiations between the U.S. and Japan should heat up.

“And hopefully by the time the leaders from Japan and the United States meet in the fall, there’s something to announce. I don’t think it will be a large trade agreement. I think it will be a mini agreement that involves perhaps agriculture, auto tariffs.”

Speaking to Brownfield at the Dairy Experience Forum in St. Paul, Minnesota Wednesday, Vilsack says that would allow the U.S. to compete with members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership like the European Union and New Zealand.

“So it’s essential that we get something done to level the playing field, because if the playing field’s level we see significant increased opportunity in Japan. Potentially over the course of the next ten years, a doubling of volume and a tripling of value.”

Japan is currently the number four market for U.S. dairy.

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