NEWS

Ag Beat: TPP far from a done deal

Todd Hill
Reporter

BUCYRUS - The huge Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which would slash scores of tariffs among 12 Pacific Rim counties including the United States, is one big step closer to becoming reality.

Daid Walker, left, New Zealand's lead negotiator performs hongi (traditional Maori touching of noses welcome) with Australia’s Andrew Robb, Minister for Trade and Investment at the signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement signing, SkyCity Conference Centre,  New Zealand, on Thursday.

Late last week, trade ministers from all of the TPP's member countries signed the deal, now leaving it up to the governments of each nation to follow suit. Many are rushing to do so. But in the U.S., where virtually all major agricultural interest groups endorse it, the TPP is going nowhere fast.

With this being an election year, leaders in Congress have indicated that no action will be taken on the TPP until after Nov. 8. And even then the trade pact's future here is unclear. Many Democrats as well as conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose it. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders have taken stands against it, as have Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Sen. Marco Rubio has said he won't make his position on the TPP known until after the primaries are past.

"The agreement covers markets that are expected to grow rapidly for decades to come. We expect to see increased access for our agricultural products, particularly some meats," American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman said.

In Ohio, agricultural exports, which are valued at $4.4 billion annually, support 33,400 jobs, according to the Ohio Farm Bureau.

"We are optimistic that the TPP agreement will increase U.S. agricultural exports, which not only increases farm incomes, but also generates economic development in rural communities," saud Chip Bowling, president of the National Corn Growers Association

Organizations lobbying for soybean and wheat growers as well as for beef and pork producers have also come out in favor of the TPP, although the president of the National Farmers Union has spoken out against the trade pact.

"TPP is modeled after the failed deals of the past, and it is destined to fail. Those past deals worsened America's trade deficit, did nothing to stop our foreign competitors from cheating the system, and failed to live up to a long list of promises," Roger Johnson said.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership would increase U.S. exports by $123.5 billion as 18,000 overseas tariffs now in place on those exports come down, according to the U.S. Trade Representative.

However, the organization Public Citizen believes most of the economic gains seen by freer trade will benefit upper-income workers, and that as the U.S. removes its tariffs on imports markets here could be flooded with cheap products from cheap-labor countries, although China is not part of the TPP.

Fertilizer training

When the Statehouse passed Senate Bill 150 in 2014, Ohio became the first state in the nation to require certification for anyone applying commercial fertilizer on more than 50 acres for agricultural purposes, with a deadline of Sept. 30, 2017. Already thousands of Ohio farmers have become certified, but several more fertilizer certification training sessions are being offered by Ohio State University this spring across north central Ohio. Local sessions include:

Feb. 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Longview Center, 1495 Longview Ave., Mansfield; Feb. 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Attica Fairgrounds, 100 Fairgrounds Road, Attica; March 15, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Crawford County Fairgrounds, 610 Whetstone St., Bucyrus.

Call the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation at 614-292-4070 or visit www.ofb.ag/FertCertification for information.

Livestock numbers

As of Jan. 1, 1,240 head of cattle and calves called the Buckeye State home, a number unchanged from a year earlier, according to Cheryl Turner, state statistician of the National Agricultural Statistics Service's Ohio field office. However, beef cow numbers increased by 1 percent during that period while beef replacement heifers were up by 10 percent.

Milk cows were down by 1 percent while milk cow replacement heifer numbers decreased by 4 percent. The calf crop in 2015 came to 470,000 head, 2 percent higher than in 2014.

Turner said Ohio's sheep and goat inventory remained fairly steady last year, with the total head of 120,000 as of Jan. 1 just 1 percent lower than a year earlier. The breeding sheep inventory didn't change at all.

Shorn wool production in Ohio last year was unchanged from 2014 at 490,000 pounds, although the average price paid for wool rose 15 cents to 74 cents a pound. The total value of wool in the state during 2015 came to $363,000, 26 percent higher than a year earlier.

Finally, there were 9,500 milk goats in Ohio as of Jan. 1, 500 fewer than a year earlier, with meat and other goat inventory coming to 44,000, 2,000 fewer than at the start of 2015.

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ