March 22, 2012

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) had engaged in recent discussions with Colombia, concerning the implementation of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and market access for US pork exports, according to reports.

The American pork council is working to get the FTA implemented very soon but is concerned about Colombia's current trade restrictive trichinae requirements. Colombia currently requires that the USA freeze pork as a mitigation against trichinae, despite the negligible risk of trichinosis in the US commercial herd.

Dr Ray Gamble, president of the International Commission on Trichinellosis, said that the odds of trichinae in the US commercial pork supply is one in 300 million. This is well within the range of negligible risk, which is defined by the EU as one in one million.

NPPC say that Colombia's trichinae mitigation requirement should be removed from the export certification before the final implementation of the trade deal.

Iowa State University economist, Dermot Hayes, estimated that the full implementation of the US-Colombia FTA would generate an additional US$68.9 million in US pork exports. In addition, 919 direct US pork industry jobs would be created while live US hog prices would rise by US$1.15.

Recently, US Congress ratified the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement after years of apparent hesitation.