Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has an alternate plan to end the U.S. trade war with China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is key to its success, the cabinet member and former Georgia governor told Agri-Pulse in an interview.

The leaders of Japan and the other 10 remaining countries in the renamed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) signed off on the sweeping trade pact last Thursday and many in the U.S. ag sector are worried they’ll suffer from being left out.

When Japan was asked if it wanted fries to go with recent free trade agreements, it said yes. Unfortunately for U.S. potato farmers and processors, those fries will come mostly from Canadian and Belgian spuds.

When it comes to forging trade alliances around the globe, the European Union is moving at seemingly breakneck speed. The 28-country bloc is securing new and expanded markets in Asia, South America and North America at a time when the U.S. seems to be in neutral or even reverse.

Canadian beef and pork exporters have long relied on their U.S. neighbors as solid trading partners, but that relationship has grown increasingly rocky during the contentious renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The uncertainty surrounding the talks and the future of U.S.-Canadian trade has the northern producers looking to Asia, and they like what they see.