Delegates to the NPPC annual meeting, which was held March 3-4 in Kansas City, Mo., voted unanimously in favor of a resolution backing the U.S.-Peru FTA and directing the organization to “mobilize pork producers nationwide“ to get the trade pact approved by the U.S. Congress. Lawmakers are expected to consider the trade deal in the coming months.

Trade talks between the U.S. and Peru were completed in early December. When fully implemented, the agreement will be extremely beneficial to U.S. pork producers, according to NPPC. An analysis conducted by Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes found that when the agreement is fully phased in, U.S. pork exports to Peru’s 28 million consumers would raise U.S. live hog prices by 83 cents a head, increasing producers’ profits by 7 percent.

Currently, U.S. pork exports to Peru are restricted by duties as high as 25 percent. Under the FTA, tariffs would be reduced on all pork products, with some products receiving unlimited duty free access upon implementation of the agreement and many other products getting reductions over a five-year period. All pork tariffs would be phased out in 10 years. Significant sanitary and technical issues also were resolved in the agreement. The Peruvian government agreed in writing to recognize the meat inspection system of the United States as equivalent to its own.

“The U.S.-Peru agreement will benefit not only pork producers but all of U.S. agriculture,“ said NPPC President Joy Philippi, a pork producer from Bruning, Neb. “NPPC will work hard to educate Congress about those benefits, and we also will educate producers and urge them to contact their lawmakers about this important trade deal.“

In addition to the resolution, NPPC delegates wrote letters of support for the U.S-Peru FTA to their members of Congress.

Source: National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) - 7th March 2006