ACCORDING to the National Chicken Council (NCC), an American association of poultry farmers, the real question is “what road has our chicken not crossed?” For every five pounds of chicken produced in America, one pound is exported; trade allows chicken farmers to export some of the dark meat that foreigners prefer, while keeping the rest for Americans who think that breast is best.
But chicken cannot fly freely across borders (or, indeed, very far at all). The Vietnamese authorities slap on a tax of 40% on whole frozen chickens arriving from America. Such tariffs throttle trade, protect less productive producers from competition, and ultimately mean pricier poultry. So the NCC welcomed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which promised to lift the offending tariff.
This is just one of thousands of trade restrictions that TPP promises to scratch. Three quarters of tariffs will be removed as soon as the deal is ratified, rising to 99% when fully implemented. It should boost more than chicken exports: a working paper published on January 25th from Peter Petri and Michael Plummer, economists at the Peterson Institute for...Continue reading
Source: Business and finance http://ift.tt/1Ur2zpm
EmoticonEmoticon