China reopened to U.S. beef in 2017, but in the months that followed, American producers only captured a small percentage of the market.  However, that could change under the Phase One trade agreement.  The U.S. Meat Export Federation’s Travis Arp, senior director of technical services/access said changes in the sanitary and phytosanitary barriers for beef access to China are significant game changers.

 

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“Because this opens up a much larger percentage of the cattle population to now be eligible for China.  Removing the hormone restrictions and adopting international standards for hormone residue limits is going to drastically increase the number of feed lot cattle that qualify for the China beef supply.”

 

Arp noted changes in traceability as well as removing the age requirement for cattle in the product scope is going to open up opportunities for U.S. producers in China.  He noted retaliatory duties remain on U.S. beef, placing American producers at a price disadvantage.  But Arp says under Phase One, U.S. beef will become more affordable to a large population in China.

 

“When you don’t have to segregate the carcasses and cattle for these very specific requirements,  it increases efficiencies within production, it simplifies how plants have to handle those cattle and carcasses, and really ends up being not only a cost savings from a production standpoint, but also operationally within the plants in the U.S.”

 

 

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