Dairy industries in New Zealand, Australia and the United States have combined to give their respective governments a nudge about the Trans Pacific Partnership trade talks.
The New Zealand dairy companies association DCANZ and its equivalents in Australia and the US have writen to the Governments appealing for a swift and successful outcome to the negotiations.
They said they understood progress was being made, but that it was still falling short of what was needed to produce the level of trade reform they were looking for in the Asia-Pacific region.
They said the dairy sector trade remained one of the most highly protected areas of trade, with tariffs of more than 200 percent on dairy imports in Japan and Canada, for example.
Officials from the 12 participating countries were continuing behind the scenes negotiations, but they also depended on progress in talks between the US and Japan and the US administration getting clearance from Congress to fast track legislation.