Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 7/11/19


The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is asking Congress to quickly approve the proposed U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement on behalf of 39 state affiliates and the entire U.S. beef industry.

The organization this week delivered a letter to the four top congressional leaders urging “the swift ratification” of USMCA, emphasizing that exports of U.S. beef to Canada and Mexico totaled $1.8 billion in 2018 and added $70 in value per head.

The U.S. beef industry, noted NCBA, benefited from “unrestricted, duty-free access to Canada and Mexico” under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the Trump administration is seeking to replace with USMCA. It is “very difficult to improve on zero tariffs, zero quotas and science-based standards” that U.S. beef exporters currently receive, the group added.

In the letter, NCBA also “strongly encourages” congressional leaders to oppose efforts to reinstate mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL), which was repealed by Congress in 2015 under threat of tariffs from Canada and Mexico. MCOOL cost the U.S. beef industry “hundreds of millions of dollars to implement,” without providing the promised higher cattle prices and improved consumer demand, NCBA said.

The World Trade Organization ruled “multiple times” that MCOOL “violated our WTO commitments” and sanctioned $1 billion in proposed retaliatory tariffs in 2015, the letter stated.

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