WASHINGTON, June 1, 2016 - China is on track for another
record-breaking year of beef imports and U.S. exporters remained sidelined
because of a 14-year ban. But U.S. Meat Export Federation officials say there
is hope that will soon change.
Renewed focus by the Obama administration, including a new
task force set up by the USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative, is showing
signs of progress in getting the ban lifted, USMEF President and CEO Philip
Seng said in a recent interview with reporters.
“The current administration is very, very motivated to try
to conclude some type of agreement with China for beef access,” Seng said.
“They’re very focused on this and I think that this resolve to get this market
open will translate into some kind of opening.”
U.S. government officials confirmed the existence of the
USDA-USTR task force, but did not disclose any specifics about the group’s
actions. On the USDA side, the team includes officials from the Foreign
Agricultural Service, Agricultural Marketing Service, Food Safety and
Inspection Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
“USDA is actively working to open the Chinese market,” a
USDA spokeswoman said. China suspended imports from the U.S. in 2003, shortly
after the U.S. found its first case of mad cow disease.
Meanwhile, China’s direct beef imports surged to $662.5
million in the first quarter of the year, up 85 percent from the
year-earlier quarter, said Joel Haggard, USMEF’s senior vice president for the
Asia-Pacific region. The country also imports vast amounts of beef and other
commodities via “gray channels,” through Hong Kong and across other borders,
often without official records.
“Overall beef consumption in China is increasing,” Haggard
said. “It’s a market we just can’t tolerate to be out of.”
More evidence backing up that assertion came in May when FAS
economists raised their forecast
for China’s beef imports this year to 750,000 tons, a 50,000-ton increase from
an earlier prediction. That’s up from 663,000 tons in 2015 and 417,000 tons in
2014.
Meanwhile, as China’s imports continue to grow, countries
like Australia, Uruguay, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and Canada continue to
ship more beef to the world’s most populous country.
But there’s one factor at work that is giving the U.S. beef
negotiations some added impetus: The USDA is moving closer to allowing China to
export its chicken to the U.S.
China has long sought USDA approval to ship Chinese chicken to
the U.S. Even though there is no official agreement for reciprocity, some U.S.
industry officials believe that Chinese chicken acceptance will be a key factor
in opening China to U.S. beef.
And that’s closer than ever after the FSIS announced
in March that China’s food safety system and several chicken slaughter and
processing plants passed the necessary audits for shipping product to the U.S.
The next step will be for FSIS to issue a proposed federal rule to allow China
to begin exporting.
That could go a long way towards thawing U.S.-China trade
relations, said Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export
Council.
“It could certainly contribute towards the improvement of
overall relations because China has often cited this restriction on being able
to export to the U.S. as part of the justification for its position on other
issues such as beef exports to China,” Sumner told Agri-Pulse.
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