Nations hoping to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership have begun preparations to ensure acceptance when the trade deal opens to new member states. The TPP currently represents 12 countries that account for nearly 40 percent of global Gross Domestic Product. The National Pork Producers Council says the deal would be the “biggest commercial opportunity ever for U.S. pork producers.” Meanwhile, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister last week stressed the need for the country to improve its competitiveness as part of preparations for joining the TPP. Taiwan’s new president previously indicated she wants the island nation to join the TPP and that the country must resolve issues related to imports of U.S. pork products, including its ban on ractopamine. Along with Thailand and Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Honduras and Colombia have expressed an interest in joining the TPP.

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness states the Environmental Protection Agency’s new “preliminary” ecological risk assessment relies on computer models to predict environmental effects from use of the herbicide atrazine. The EPA released a draft proposal last week that suggests atrazine is harmful to the environment.The Center says those predictions are not true, adding that there is no real world data showing that EPA’s predictions have actually occurred, despite atrazine’s widespread international use for more than 60 years. The center claims EPA’s unsupported accusations violate EPA’s own Model Quality Guidelines, which require that model predictions be consistent with real world data before they are used to regulate.

Former FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg under the Obama administration says GMO labeling could send the wrong message to consumers. Hamburg says GMO labeling worries her the most, adding she worries about entering a period “of what some call science denialism out of fear,” according to Politico. Hamburg says mandatory labeling potentially sends the message that GMO’s are dangerous. Her comments come as Congress has just two weeks’ worth of working days left to complete a GMO labeling compromise before the Vermont labeling law takes effect. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, are reportedly still working on a labeling compromise. However, with little time left, some lawmakers, such as Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, are “unconvinced” Congress can pass a deal before July first when the Vermont law takes effect.

Cuba’s agriculture minister says the country wants to increase food production to cut food imports in half. Cuba currently imports $2 billion of food per year, but it needs medium and long-term credit to buy U.S. equipment to achieve that goal of cutting food imports in half, according to the Hagstrom Report. Cuba needs new equipment as many farmers are using Caterpillar, John Deere and Massey Ferguson farm equipment that were imported before the 1959 revolution. Financing exports to Cuba, even of agricultural products, is prohibited under the 2000 law that allowed agricultural exports.

The United Nations says global food commodity markets are likely to remain stable, even as prices rose for the fourth straight month. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s monthly food price report rose 2.1 percent in May to average 155.8 points. Rising prices for most main food commodities apart from vegetable oils resulted in the index’s fourth consecutive monthly rise after it hit a near seven-year low in January, according to Reuters. The FAO says solid output prospects and abundant stocks should keep prices and supplies stable, while lower prices than those seen last year are set to reduce the world’s food import bill. Meanwhile, dairy prices rose 0.4 percent in May partly due to continued demand for milk powder and butter, but are still down 24 percent since last year and expected to stay weak, according to the monthly index.