Agricultural News
Farm Bureau Delegates Prefer "All or Nothing" Negotiating Stance With Asian Countries for US Beef Access
Wed, 13 Jan 2010 6:02:08 CST
The issue of how to deal with countries that have been slow to reopen their markets to US beef came up in the policy discussions conducted by the American Farm Bureau delegates on Tuesday in Seattle. A resolution came to the floor that would have tempered the "all or nothing" approach to negotiating that was the Bush Administration trademark in their dealings with especially Japan after the discovery of the cow that stole Christmas back in 2003. The discovery of BSE in the United States cattle herd gave the Japanese and several other countries the opportunity to restrict US beef into their markets- and in the case of Japan, the restrictions of only accepting US beef from animals 20 months of age or younger means the loss of as much as a billion dollars annually to the US cattle industry.
The Chief Economist of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Gregg Doud, believes that if you could move that threshold from the 20 month of age level to Japan accepting beef from animals 30 months of age or younger- much of that billion dollars annually could be realized by sellers of US beef into that market.
The resolution before the Farm Bureau delegates stated "To aid meat industry trade associations in their efforts to restore full market access for U.S. meat exports, the AFBF Board of Directors should urge all relevant offices of the federal government (chiefly the USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative) to consider intermediate steps to complete access."
On today's Beef Buzz, we offer you a taste of that debate, with comments in favor by Arkansas delegate Tom Jones (currently Secretary-Treasurer of the Cattlemen's Beef Board- and arguments against the proposal by South Carolina delegate David Winkles.
The delegates were split on this proposal- and it ended up failing by a 176-181 vote.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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