USDA Expands Beef & Pork Trade with Mexico and Peru

High Plains Journal
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April 23, 2015

"Mexico is an important market for U.S. cattle producers, with the potential to import $15 million of live U.S. cattle per year," said the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.

Dodge City, Kansas - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently reached agreements allowing U.S. beef and pork producers greater access to consumers in Mexico and Peru.

The two agreements announced will allow U.S. producers to export slaughter cattle to Mexico and expand access to consumer markets in Peru for U.S. fresh and chilled pork. The secretary made the announcements during a meeting with producers in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Our priority at the USDA is not only to open or reopen markets for our producers, but to help drive U.S. economic growth through trade by supporting and creating American jobs on and off the farm," said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. "Mexico is an important market for U.S. cattle producers, with the potential to import $15 million of live U.S. cattle per year, and Peru's market could generate $5 million annually in additional pork sales."

The United States and Mexico reached an agreement that takes effect immediately and will allow U.S. producers to export slaughter cattle to Mexico for the first time in over a decade. The USDA has been working with Mexico since 2008 to reopen this market and the final agreement was reached between USDA Under Secretary Ed Avalos and Enrique Sanchez-Cruz with SAGARPA during meetings recent in Washington, D.C.

Exporters and producers can find the required documents on the APHIS website or through their local veterinary services office.
Similarly, USDA has conducted extensive negotiations with Peru's Servicio National De Sanidad Agraria since 2012 to expand access for U.S. fresh, chilled pork and pork products. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service export library will be updated to the new export requirements for these pork and pork products exports.
"More than 1 million people go to work every day thanks to exports of American-grown products. Expanded U.S. agricultural exports mean more new jobs, but our farmers and ranchers will miss out on new markets for American products if Congress doesn't act on Trade Promotion Authority early this year and if we don't continue to build support for a Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asian nations."

USDA continues its push to eliminate all remaining trade barriers to U.S. cattle and cattle products stemming from past detections of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. USDA Animal and Plant

Health Inspection Service continues to work with its trading partners to ensure any unnecessary requirements for U.S. origin beef are eliminated. The World Organization for Animal Health considers the United States' to have negligible risk for BSE. This is OIE's lowest risk category for this disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture continuously seeks opportunities for U.S. agricultural products and producers to expand access to overseas markets and contribute to a positive U.S. trade balance, to create jobs and to support economic growth. The past six years have represented the strongest period for American agricultural exports in the history of our country. In fiscal year 2014 American farmers and ranchers exported a record $152.5 billion of food and agricultural products to consumers worldwide.

Original article

WTO Sides with México and Canada

 by Murry Page

27 Oct 14 

mazmessenger.com

 

Last week the World Trade Organization (WTO), as expected, ruled on the side of Canada and México in the ongoing battle over the U.S. mandatory Country-of-Origin-Labeling (COOL) law. In its ruling the WTO said some COOL requirements treat Canadian and Mexican livestock less favorably than U.S. livestock.

In 2009 the WTO ruled that certain COOL requirements discriminated against foreign livestock and gave the United States a May 2013 deadline to comply with its findings.

The U.S. removed the “Mixed Labeling” and stated new labels had to show the origin of each step, i.e., born, raised, and slaughtered. So in an example of where cattle was born and raised in Canada, then imported into the U.S. the label must now read, “Born and raised in Canada, slaughtered in U.S.”

This meant cattle from each country had to be kept segregated during each step of the harvesting process.

Specifically, the October 20 ruling says the “compliance panel concluded that the amended COOL measure increases the original COOL measure’s detrimental impact on the competitive opportunities of imported livestock in the U.S. market, because it necessitates increased segregation of meat and livestock according to origin; entails a higher recordkeeping burden; and increases the original COOL measure’s incentive to choose domestic over imported livestock.”

Canada and México have threatened to retaliate in the form of tariffs being placed on U.S. products headed to their countries. While México has not yet released its list of products, the targeted list from Canada includes not only live cattle and hogs and meat products but also fresh fruits, grains, pasta, bread and other pastries, wine, ketchup, certain metals, jewelry, mattresses and more.

(from Drovers Cattle Network)

Russia sanctions good for Mexico

Russia-bound.MEXICAN BEEF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mexico News Daily | Monday, October 6, 2014

On the heels of Russian embargoes against beef and other imports from those countries applying sanctions against it, Mexican beef is back in Russia’s good books.

It is also good timing for Mexico, considering that exports last year fell 18% to 122,533 tonnes. Beef exporters want to see that number rise to 170,000 tonnes, a goal that should be more attainable as Russia looks to replace imports from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway,

Brazil and New Zealand are other potential suppliers for the agricultural products Russia needs, which include pork and chicken.

The Russian embargo is in retaliation for sanctions imposed against it for its interference in the affairs of neighboring Ukraine. Europe has banned companies from conducting business with some Russian banks and energy firms.

But one economist says the big loser is Russia because its domestic consumption for some of the products won’t meet the demand. More than 50% of its imports of pork, poultry and dairy products fall under the ban, which can only mean big prices to Russian consumers, says Craig Botham, an economist with Schroders, a United Kingdom investment bank.

Russia had put a ban on Mexican beef because it believed the industry was using the feed additive ractopamine, used to increase the rate of weight gain and improve feed efficiency. While Russia and China have banned it, many other countries have deemed it safe, including Mexico which, however, insists the additive is not being used here.

Mexico’s beef exports in 2013 were valued at US $675 million.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Forbes (en)

- See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/russia-sanction-benefit-mexican-beef/#sthash.HtJiFXzP.dpuf

Mexico Removes Import Restrictions on U.S. Beef

wisconsinconnection.com
USAgNet - 05/07/2014

The Mexican government is in the process of making regulatory changes that allow for import of U.S. beef and beef products derived from cattle of any age. The move lifts the 30-month cattle age limit for U.S. beef and effectively removes the last of Mexico's BSE-related restrictions.

"This is an issue that U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) has been working on for a number of years, and resolving it has been a lengthy process," said Chad Russell, U.S. Meat Export Federation regional director for Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic, contractor to the beef checkoff.

"We received excellent support on this issue from FAS officials at the U.S. embassy in Mexico, who always made sure that it was front-and-center whenever U.S.-Mexico trade issues were being discussed at high levels. Though it took some time, these efforts have now paid off."

The changes to Mexico's import regulations were to take effect April 30, though shipments of over-30-month beef cannot begin until the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) updates its Export Library.

USMEF expects this process to be completed within the next few days. This will also allow the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) export verification (EV) program for Mexico, in which approximately 170 U.S. establishments are currently enrolled, to be terminated.

According to information provided to USMEF, Mexico will accept either the new FSIS letter certificate or an existing letterhead certificate, along with the corresponding FSIS form, for product currently in the pipeline and for new shipments made over the next few weeks.

So exporters will have some time - likely until late June - to make the transition to the new letterhead certificate and other documentation requirements.

Despite concerns over rising beef prices and tight supplies, the Mexican market has been performing well. U.S. beef/beef variety exports have been above year-ago volumes in each of the past nine months, and 2014 exports (through February) were up 26 percent in volume (37,638 metric tons) and 40 percent in value ($182.9 million) from the same period in 2013.

The U.S. holds about 90 percent of Mexico's imported beef market, with the remainder captured mostly by Canada. Canada's market share has edged higher in recent months, likely due to increased affordability as Canada's beef production has been recovering and the Canadian dollar has weakened. But with the exception of livers, Canada's exports to Mexico are still limited to beef derived from cattle less than 30 months of age.