The National Pork Producers Council is applauding a new Canada U.S. and Mexico free trade agreement.
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have successfully concluded negotiations aimed at modernizing trade among the three nations.
National Pork Producers Council Senior Communications Director Jim Monroe says the United States Mexico Canada Agreement helps shift the momentum on U.S. trade.
Essentially what we’ve seen is the framework for a new agreement between the three countries that ensures that we’ll maintain zero tariff access for the long term. We export somewhere around 30 percent of all U.S. production so exports are very very important for U.S. pork. We have strong demand for pork in the U.S. but for the last several years pork consumption in the U.S. has remained pretty stable, at the same level, so most of the sector’s growth is going to come from exports, from shipping U.S. pork to developing nations for example where they’re adding more and more protein to their diets so we’re very very dependant on exports for profitability and for growth.
Recent discussions around trade and U.S. pork have not been very optimistic of late. I would say in recent weeks we’ve seen a momentum shift. You’re probably aware that last week the administration formally signed a modernized free trade agreement with South Korea. South Korea is our fifth largest export market. In the last week or so you have seen deals put in place or agreements put in place that preserve zero tariff access to three of U.S. pork’s top five export markets, so a bit of a momentum shift and that’s really good news for U.S. pork producers.
~ Jim Monroe, National Pork Producers Council
Monroe says the U.S. pork sector has been in expansion mode but the uncertainty we’ve seen around exports over the past year has inhibited investments.
