TTIP agreement may be too big not to happen, says USDA
Farmers Guardian (UK) | 11 June 2014
CEREALS 2014: TTIP agreement may be too big not to happen, says USDA
By Joel Durkin
THE US and the European Union may be too big for a free-trade deal not to happen. This was the claim from USDA chief economist Joseph Glauber during his Cereals address.
A free-trade deal in the form of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has been on the cards for a number of years but the two states have stalled over tarriff disputes in recent months.
But Mr Glauber suggested a deal may be inevitable in the long-term.
“I think we are too big as agricultural blocks for a deal not to happen,” he said. “There are some issues but we hope we can begin to make progress over the next six months or so,” he said.
The TTIP agreement is widely regarded as having future influence on the agricultural sector but Mr Glauber said it was difficult to tell which sector of UK agriculture would benefit and which would be negatively affected by the deal.
“The niche markets are often the winners in trade deals such as these,” he added.
