ThePigSite.com, UK
06-14-07
Pork Producers Need Trade Deals To Expand Exports
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Regardless of size, pork producers benefit from trade
agreements, and Congress should approve pending trade deals and renew
Trade Promotion Authority, the National Pork Producers Council said today in
congressional testimony.
“I strongly believe that the future of the U.S. pork industry, and the future
livelihood of my family’s operation, depend in large part on further trade
agreements and continued trade expansion under Trade Promotion Authority,”
former NPPC President Jon Caspers, a pork producer from Swaledale, Iowa, told
the House Small Business Committee. “Regardless of whether the pork from a
particular hog is exported, the price impact of exports lifts the U.S. price for live
hogs so that all producers benefit.”
Pork exports add $33.60 to the price producers receive for each pig, according to
economists with Iowa State University. Free trade agreements with Colombia,
Panama, Peru and South Korea, which are awaiting congressional action, would
add another $12.66 per pig to producers’ bottom line.
Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which expires June 30, allows the president to
negotiate trade agreements with other countries and requires Congress to
approve those deals without amendments – or to reject them. It gives trading
partners confidence that the agreements they negotiate with the United States
will not be renegotiated by federal lawmakers.
New and expanded market access through trade agreements has been the most
important catalyst for increasing U.S. pork exports. Since the U.S.-Canada Free
Trade Agreement was implemented in 1989, exports of U.S. pork products have
grown to more than $2.6 billion from $394 million.