Agricultural News
Trump Convinces China to Grant Market Access to US Beef - NCBA Hails It a Major Victory
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 11:13:15 CDT
Word came at the beginning of this week, that a victory was won for US beef producers during President Donald Trump's Summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. China announced just a few days ago after Xi's return home that the Chinese government has agreed to move forward with opening access back up to their markets for US beef, which were shut tight in 2003 after a brief episode concerning mad cow disease. Kent Bacus, director of international trade and market access for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association spoke with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays about this new signal of hope to America's beef industry.
"President Trump, he listened to the requests, not only from NCBA, but from the North American Meat Institute and the US Meat Export Federation - and we asked him to make this a priority issue," Bacus said. "So, when you think about all of the requests coming into the White House for issues to be discussed, we consider this a victory, that beef was included as a priority issue."
While this news has been well received, Bacus acknowledges that there is still a lot of discussion that needs to take place, hammering out the technical barriers of a trade agreement, such as traceability. These discussions have been going on for months now, since China first hinted at opening up their doors again, but they have since seemed to stagnate. However, backing from Xi may help to speed up the process.
"Over the next 100 days, the Chinese and the US leaders are going to identify a path forward where they're going to address some of these technical barriers to trade," he said. "So, we still have a little bit of time going forward to see our beef enter the Chinese market."
Listen to NCBA's Kent Bacus brief Farm Director Ron Hays on China's announcement regarding US beef access to its markets, on today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is 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.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
