Following President Trump’s recent Asian tour, The Meat Institute released a statement regarding the White House's announcement of trade deals with Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We are so grateful to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Assistant USTR for Agricultural Affairs Julie Callahan for their hard work to address both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade that have been challenging meat and poultry exports for years," said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. We have worked closely with the Trump Administration to gain better access to growing markets in Southeast Asia and these agreements are a big win for our members.
We applaud the elimination of onerous establishment and product registration requirements and the reinforcement of sound, internationally recognized science in determining market access.
We are pleased that Cambodia and Malaysia agreed to our protections for common meat product names and, as negotiations proceed with Thailand and Vietnam, we will continue to work with the Administration to ensure the final agreements include these provisions.
Julie Callahan is scheduled to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Meat Institute urges the Committee to favorably report her nomination to be the USTR Chief Negotiator for Agriculture to the full Senate without delay.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
There is typically a bright light shining on tariffs and counter-tariffs, but the non-tariff barriers are often overlooked. Yet, non-tariff barriers can be just as damaging and can even prevent market access altogether. It is encouraging that all forms of actions blocking access to potential growth markets are being addressed. This will improve the ability of U.S. products to compete fairly in the countries mentioned in the article. All of this will be helpful in expanding markets for U.S. meat, livestock and poultry.
As more of these types of agreements are put into place, our farmers and ranchers will benefit over time. We hope you believe, as we do, that focusing some of your marketing initiatives on farmers and ranchers makes good business sense. The CAD program was created to help you focus on ag customers. We have done the research, we know the numbers make sense and it’s our job to help you sell more trucks and be more successful with those farmers and ranchers in your area. I highly recommend that you and your team go to our website or get our mobile app that provides you with all the programs and information you need to use in this pursuit. Oh, by the way, you can use some of the information contained in this AIR each week to assist in the process as well.
