Expanding Global Markets - Part 2

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

What will a new presidential administration mean for expanding global markets for California-grown products? Bryant Christie Chairman Bill Bryant says we have some ground to make up that we have lost from our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Bryant… “The last four years has demonstrated that when the United States pulls out, other countries will move in. And we are in a position now where other countries have moved into markets that we once had. Canada has taken market share because they're a part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and we are not. And so they have tariff preferences into some of our important Asian markets. We're in a position now where we have to go back and get customers back. And as everyone knows, it is much easier to keep a customer than to get a new one or to get a customer back. And yet that's the position we put ourselves in. And the best way that we can get customers back is to let them know that we are a reliable trading partner. And that means we are not going to change the rules every time we get angry or upset. We're going to stick by the rules that we've negotiated, and to do that we need to come back and say, we are prepared to enter into the TPP again, and we will stay in here for the next two decades.”

Bryant admits the TPP is politically charged, and concessions may need to be made to rejoin the agreement.