News

Reopening of China to U.S. beef ‘not imminent’

Over the past two years, China has become the fastest-growing market in the world for imported beef.  But the U.S. continues to be shut out of the Chinese market.

Thad Lively senior vice president for trade access with the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) says efforts to regain access to China are progressing—but he says a reopening of that market is not imminent.

“In the last 18 months, we’ve seen imports into China really take off.  And, of course, we’ve been sitting on the sideline while that’s been going on,” Lively says. “We were encouraged late last year when both governments came out and made a statement saying that they had set the objective of getting the market open by this summer.  Of course, that’s now come and gone and the market is still closed.”

However, Lively says he is encouraged by recent developments, including a technical review conducted this summer by officials from China.

“They spent two weeks here going to feedlots and feed mills and packing plants and universities,” Lively says. “They saw the whole range of the industry from start to finish—got briefed on all the BSE risk mitigation measures that are in place here in the United States—and I think that was a needed and important step in getting this done.”

Lively says another round of high level meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials will take place before the end of the year.

“We always look at those kinds of meetings as places where we can possibly see some movement,” he says. “We know from the experience that we’ve had working our way back into markets all over the world that this is never a fast process.  It’s never a simple process.  We have no reason to expect China to open its door today or tomorrow—but there is work being done in that direction.”

China stopped importing U.S. beef following the December 2003 BSE case.  China’s major beef suppliers are Australia, Uruguay and New Zealand, with Argentina and Canada also serving the market.