Do You Know Where Your Burger Comes From?

The big meat corporations issued an ultimatum to Japan this summer: either drop different tariffs on all agriculture products or you should be kicked out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The threat, coming from the dairy, pork, wheat and rice industries based in the U.S., represented the seriousness of what’s at stake for global agribusiness—and particularly the big meat corporations—in potentially the largest free trade agreement ever negotiated.

The TPP has been called "NAFTA on steroids" for good reason. It includes the NAFTA countries (U.S., Mexico and Canada), as well as nine other Pacific Rim countries (Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru and Singapore). For global agribusiness, most with operations and connections in multiple TPP countries, the goal is simple: lower tariffs and weaken regulations that support farmers, consumers and rural communities in order to increase exports and imports. As the global meat and dairy trade grows—and the percentage of U.S. production for export rises—the ongoing TPP negotiations have become even more critical to these corporations’ bottom line.

Remarkably, TPP continues to be negotiated in secret as if it were a private commercial agreement, with no effective means for the public to intervene in negotiations. And both the Obama Administration and many in Congress are pushing for fast track, which would allow the administration to complete the secret negotiations and then present the final deal to Congress for an up or down vote—no changes, no amendments. This undemocratic, secretive approach to trade policy is exactly what the global meat industry is banking on.