The latest round of negotiations in the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement ended yesterday in San Diego. The agreement's Asian-Pacific orientation and the vision of eventually expanding to other important dairy markets in the region make it an increasingly important agreement to the dairy industry.

The San Diego talks were the thirteenth round of talks. The TPP is currently being negotiated by Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Mexico and Canada were invited to join the partnership last month, but they won’t be able to participate fully during the next three months. The Obama administration notified Congress this week of its intent to include the neighboring countries in the TPP talks, triggering a 90-day consultation period with Congress on U.S. negotiating objectives with respect to Canada and Mexico. The U.S. Trade Representative also will post a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comments.

Significant work remains to be completed, but progress is expected on several key elements of the agreement. IDFA has been involved in advocating strong regulatory provisions, that will help facilitate dairy trade, and intellectual property provisions that will safeguard the continued use of common cheese names in growing dairy markets.

The next round of negotiations will be held in Leesburg, Va., in September.  

For more information, contact John Kelly, IDFA manager of international affairs, at jkelly@idfa.org.