US pork sector anxious to restore pork trade with Chinese market

The NPPC says, in light of the export opportunities resulting from reduced Chinese pork production due to African swine fever, the US pork sector is anxious to see the restoration of more favourable access to that market.
calendar icon 1 August 2019
clock icon 3 minute read

Last month representatives of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture, outlining the numerous challenges the US pork sector faces both abroad and domestically.

Speaking to Farmscape, NPPC Senior Director of Communications Jim Monroe says the US pork sector has expanded exponentially since entering its first free trade agreement in 1989 but recently it has been on the defensive with some of it's most important export markets, including China but would prefer to be in an offensive posture negotiating new trade agreements.

"The trade dispute has been going on for US pork producers for over a year and, since the 50 percent punitive tariffs have been placed on US pork on top of 12 percent duties, a 62 percent tariff, our American hog farmers have been losing eight dollars per hog or one billion dollars on an annualised basis," Monroe explains.

"China is the largest pork consuming nation in the world and that has really inhibited our exports in one of our most important export markets.

"We're eager to see an end to that trade dispute and the restoration of more favourable access, particularly now with the African swine fever situation in China and the significant drop in China's domestic production, we have what is an unprecedented sales opportunity in China and we're eager to fully participate in that."

Monroe says the United States is the most reliable source of pork, producing the highest quality, the safest, the most affordable pork in the world. He says pork producers are big believers in free trade, have worked hard to establish strong trading relationships with important export markets and want to maintain those relationships.

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