With a new president and Congress preparing to take office, it's a good time to remind our elected officials how opening foreign markets raises U.S. dairy exports and helps our U.S. economy.

Remedies for non-tariff barriers outweigh market access gains. 

If we had to give the Trans-Pacific Partnership a grade, it would not get an “A” nor would it get an “F”.  

The president signed TPA legislation in June; now it's up to USTR to bring home a beneficial dairy deal.

If Congress passes Trade Promotion Authority it opens a meaningful debate on the merits of a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

“Significantly increased dairy market access” with Japan and Canada needed.

Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) needed to further expand dairy exports.

The pact's third anniversary shows the urgency of finishing TPP to further open Asia.

Every U.S. bilateral and regional free trade agreement the United States has signed in recent years has led to increased dairy exports.

Over the last decade, the value of U.S. dairy exports has increased 21 percent per year.

Progress on market access into the Japanese and Canadian markets has been frustratingly slow. 

The gavel fell on the 11th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade talks March 9, 2012, in Melbourne, Australia. While negotiators still need to resolve many issues, the prospective deal could evolve into a far better proposition than when U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk first announced U.S. participation in 2009.

One of the unfortunate byproducts of a more globalized dairy industry is an increased incidence of non-tariff barriers to trade. Even as global dairy demand rises, new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements are erecting roadblocks for U.S. dairy suppliers that are, in some cases, more burdensome than tariff barriers.