Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 10/21/11

As part of an agreement for a cross-border trucking program, Mexico today dropped retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports including pork.

The two governments agreed to a cross-border trucking program earlier this year after 17 years of squabbles over the program established by the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Mexico initially cut 50 percent of its retaliatory tariffs and today lifted the remainder after the U.S. Department of Transportation issued the first trucking permit.

The National Pork Producers Council, among other meat industry trade associations, praised the cooperation.

“America’s pork producers are very pleased that the United States issued the first Mexican trucking permit, which has led today to the Mexican government removing the remaining retaliatory tariffs on our products,” NPPC President Doug Wolf said in a news release. “Mexico is a very important market for the U.S. pork industry and for many other sectors. More than 6 million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico.”

Mexico is the second-largest market for the U.S. pork industry, which shipped $986 million of pork south of the border in 2010. Since 1993, U.S. pork exports to Mexico have increased by 780 percent.

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