“Seeing possibilities in potatoes” is the upbeat slogan of Lamb Weston Potato Products, Inc., an American exporter. But new trade deals mean that its foreign competitors have fewer obstacles blocking their view.
According to an article published by The Economist, one of these is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which came into effect on December 30th. Negotiated as the TPP between 12 countries and agreed between 11, after President Donald Trump pulled America out, the deal will phase out tariffs on frozen potato chips and mashed potato, benefiting Lamb Weston’s Canadian rivals.
And another trade deal, between the European Union and Japan, to be implemented on February 1st, will do the same for its European ones.
Brent Baglien, Lamb Weston’s vice-president of government affairs, urged the United States Trade Representative (USTR), America’s top trade official, to seek a deal with Japan that would eliminate its 8.5% tariff on American imported potatoes. “Once the us loses an export customer, it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to get it back,” he warned.
