Asian leaders gather this Sunday to hopefully put the final touches on a trade agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The negotiations have taken eight years and, as usual, the word comprehensive does not apply to agriculture. Likely exempt from tariff reductions or elimination are products like sugar, rice, beef, pork, and dairy.  Except for rice, imports as a share of production of these goods in East Asia already runs much higher than in North America. Increasing dependency is too politically sensitive for many of the participants. The value of rice is three times greater in Brunei, Japan, and South Korea relative to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. Yet because of higher trade volumes, reducing bor...

TAGS – Softs, Asia, North America