Obama administration says TPP is a good deal for Illinois

Posted on November 4, 2015
Barack Obama
(Photo Courtesy Flickr/JamesOMalley)

By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – The Obama administration says Illinois will be a winner with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said you won’t want to miss out on the reduced tariffs.

“Asia is currently home to 525 million middle-class consumers,” he told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. “That’s expected to grow to over 3.5 billion in the next 10-15 years, representing two-thirds of all middle-class consumers in the world.”

And there’s one well-known Illinois company which stands to benefit.

“Vienna Beef is known for making premium products,” that company’s export manager, Youssef Elayyadi, also said on the call. “It’s important for us to be able to ship our products to countries which have high purchasing power (and) have a growing economy. Many countries around the world are currently great places for United States companies to expand to.”

There’s concern the TPP, boasting reduction or elimination of 18,000 tariffs, is shrouded in secrecy; that hardly anybody has seen what’s in it. Vilsack said the contents will be released “soon.”

<http://www.fas.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2015-10/illinois_0.pdf>

<http://www.usda.gov/documents/Illinois_Investments.pdf>

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