April 5, 2007

 

US meat industry to press on for China beef access

 

 

US beef industry groups have called on US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to use the May 23-24 meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) to press China to resume negotiations for a full opening of its beef market.

 

In a March 23 letter to Paulson, the American Meat Institute (AMI), National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and National Meat Association said China has been reluctant to resume negotiations allowing US access, and said the high-level May meeting in Washington offers the best chance of starting the talks again.

 

The letter asked for the Treasury to include the topic on the agenda, with the aim of achieving ¡¡ãfull restoration of beef trade¡¡À. The Treasury has reportedly not replied to this request as of late last week.

 

A meeting meant to address longer term bilateral and economic issues rather than discuss specific trade problems, the high-level SED may not be the right platform, a Treasury official has hinted, saying that such matters should be handled by the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT).

 

But this view was shot down by the meat industry, which replied in a letter that higher level attention to the issue is needed, since there have been "very few steps forward" since December 2003 when China announced the ban in response to a finding of mad cow disease in the US.

 

China agreed at the April 2006 JCCT meeting to negotiate a protocol with the US that would set out the terms under which US beef could be shipped to China again, but this never happened. Instead, China announced on June 30, 2006 that it had established a protocol unilaterally.

 

US exporters said its terms are too risky for U.S. companies to ship beef to China and expressed the fear that shipments could easily be returned if they did not meet China's standards.

 

According to the AMI, no beef trade with China has occurred in the nine months since June 2006 and that "negotiations have made minimal progress to resolve the issue." It added that it wants China to accept all US beef products, and said this is justified because a scientific panel in the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on March 12 gave the US a preliminary designation as a "controlled risk" country for mad cow disease.

 

Accepting the OIE decision should mean China would allow trade in US beef, boneless and bone-in, from cattle of all ages. Sources have said the decision of the OIE panel is expected to be approved by the full organization in May.

 

Finally, Boyle said it is critical that US beef be allowed in China because the market there is growing as the middle class in China grows. He said China's purchase of pork and poultry products has increased by nearly 500 percent over the last four years, and indicated that US beef exporters would benefit from growing demand for animal protein in China.