Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is praising the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement as an historic one that will open the doors to productive discussion of biotechnology and issues surrounding it.
In a new conference last week, he said the agreement, which involves nine member countries, “will give us an additional opportunity to raise questions about [sanitary and phytosanitary] rules that are not risk- and science-based, and a process by which we can contest such barriers to free market trade.”
He referred to the TPP’s “historic inclusion of biotechnology” and said the TPP represents “an acknowledgement that member countries will use science-based determinations relative to biotechnology to promote greater transparency in the regulatory process involving biotechnology.”
He said he’s also excited that the TPP will encourage member countries to engage in discussion of issues surrounding low level presence.
