The Trans-Pacific Partnership remains doable but increasingly harder as the U.S. Presidential election moves closer. Australian Federal Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb said “the last few yards are very difficult.” Robb spoke last week saying the remaining five percent of the deal is proving to be the toughest. The closer the trade deal gets to nudging against the U.S. election, Robb suggest the chances of a deal failing greatly increases. He mentioned that if the trade negotiators could shake hands on a deal sooner, it would get completed as the 12 partner countries could take whatever time necessary to finalize the deal.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, along with the Public Lands Council, sent a letter on Monday pointing a finger at the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for catastrophic wildfires across the Western U.S. According to the U.S. Forest Service, wildfire suppression now costs the agency more than $1 billion annually and for the first time in its 110-year history, the agency is spending more than half of its budget on wildfire suppression.

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