Passage last week of trade promotion authority (TPA) was an important step toward completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but significant negotiations and tough decisions remain to complete the landmark deal.

With the 2016 U.S. election season already looming, this summer is a key window of opportunity to finalize TPP. The pact among 12 Pacific Rim partners – a group that already accounts for 40 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP) – is intended to create a dynamic, free trade zone creating jobs and economic growth for all participants.

TPA is considered essential to completing TPP because negotiators for many countries had refused to put their best and final proposals forward until there was a guarantee that a completed package would be voted on as a whole, without amendment.

With TPA in place to force an up-or-down vote on a final, signed agreement, negotiators are pushing to ink a deal as soon as possible to permit a possible vote by the end of the year.

The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) participates in trade negotiations worldwide on behalf of U.S. grain farmers. Among the Council’s objectives in the TPP talks are securing increased market access for U.S products, ensuring that existing access remains open, and achieving a more robust sanitary and phytosanitary chapter that will reduce non-tariff trade barriers and provide for faster resolution of barriers that do arise. In addition, the Council is working for progress on biotechnology issues including increased cooperation on issues related to the asynchronous approval of biotech events and low level presence of unapproved traits.