The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) signing was announced on Tuesday following the most recent round of negotiations at Atlanta, Georgia in the US during the past week, concluding five years of tense talks.

The deal, if passed by governments in each signatory country, is set to dramatically cut import tariffs and deliver vastly improved market access for Australian farmers.

However, Councillor Dal Broi is concerned the negotiators have missed an important point.

“We haven’t got the water to grow the rice,” Cr Dal Broi said.

“It’s ironic, we’ve got this fantastic opportunity and they’ve taken the water off us.”

According to Cr Dal Broi, Japan was one of the most lucrative rice markets in the world and the Australian rice industry had been trying to get into it for years.

“Back in the mid-1990s, due to some severe droughts in Japan, we actually had access to some of their markets,” Cr Dal Broi said.

“It’s a good market, fastidious and of a high quality, and the rice went more than tripled or quadrupled in price for the grower.”

Member for Riverina Michael McCormack said he understood the concerns of farmers.

“I appreciate the allocations are low and there is a mire of overlapping bureaucracies which get in the way,” Mr McCormack said.

“I all too often get saddled with the question of why we don’t provide more water but the federal government doesn’t determine water allocations.

“I all too often ask why we can’t just provide more water.”

Mr McCormack said he had spoken to NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair about the need for more water in the Riverina and he had also written to Barnaby Joyce about the matter.

“I told them we need more water allocations,” Mr McCormack said.

“Why can’t we provide more water when it is needed?”

Federal Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb said the TPP represented a “great deal for our farmers” and would combine with other economic opportunities to expand the national economy on the global stage, in areas like services and manufactured goods.

If passed, the deal will establish a more seamless trade and investment environment with common rules around trade activity across the 12 TPP countries which represent around 40 per cent of global GDP, he said.

National Farmers’ Federation president Brent Finlay said Australia exported around $15 billion of agricultural goods to TPP countries in 2014, representing about one third of total exports of agricultural products.

Mr Finlay said that $15b was now set to increase as a result of the new agreement.

“Farmers currently face a range of tariff and non-tariff barriers across the region,” he said.

“Reduced tariffs and greater certainty on rules means more market opportunities and more investment and this means more jobs and growth in regional centres.

“On the whole, there is no doubt this agreement will improve trading conditions for Australian farmers, and must be seen as a baseline template for future plurilateral agreements.”