Farmers see positive signs in trade deal language

Western Growers’ president and CEO Tom Nassif said the series of trade deals announced with China, Japan, Mexico and Canada will level the playing field for growers in the Western United States by establishing “science-based” sanitary and phytosanitary standards that have been used to limit or block U.S. agricultural exports. The “Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures” (the “SPS Agreement”) that was adopted in 1998 by the World Trade Organization was targeted at applying food safety, animal and plant health regulations to protect human and animal life and health from contaminants and disease-causing organisms from imported foods. Nassif commented that President Donald Trump’s Phase One trade agreement with China announced on Dec. 13 not only commits Beijing to buy more U.S. agricultural products, but also requires addressing the “non-scientifically based sanitary and phytosanitary standards have been used too often to deny access of American products to the Chinese market,” according to the SPS Website.