M & T News: Agriculture Is The Engine Driving Passage Of A New Trade Deal

Members of the Senate Finance Committee welcomed United States Trade Representative Michael Froman to their chamber in late January, with most members lavishing praise on him as the public persona of President’s Obama’s embrace of free trade.

[Reposted from Manufacturing and Technology News  |  Richard McCormack  |  January 30, 2015]

Save for a few Democrats on the Committee who raised concerns about the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership and Trade Promotion Authority, most of the senators were pleased by progress being made and encouraged rapid passage of TPA.

The majority of senators on the Finance Committee were most ebullient over prospects of TPP opening Asian markets for agricultural commodities, and many of their questions of the Trade Rep. concerned poultry, beef, dairy, cotton, ethanol, wheat and soybeans.

Even some Democrats who have been skeptical about free trade seemed to waver and focused on agriculture, with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) telling Froman that “dairy is a very important issue in the Pacific Northwest.”

The rest of the article can be found here.

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