News

Beef industry asks Trump to help get U.S. beef back into China

The U.S. beef industry is asking President Trump to help get U.S. beef back into China.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April and Kent Bacus with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) says they’re urging Trump to raise the issue of U.S. beef access during that meeting.

“We need someone who is a master negotiator, someone who can close the deal,” Bacus says. “President Trump has really sold himself as that person and we think this is a great opportunity to show what he’s worth.”

China banned U.S. beef in 2003 after the BSE scare. The ban was finally lifted last fall, but China still has not resumed purchases from U.S.

“We’re one of the leading exporters in the world and yet we don’t have access to the Chinese market—even though some of our competitors, who do not have the same safety designations as ours, do have access to that market,” he says. “So we’re trying to move past all of these obstructions and these obstacles and get access into one of the biggest markets in the world.”

The issue resurfaced last week when China briefly halted imports of Brazilian beef over that country’s meatpacking scandal, but the U.S. was never mentioned in news reports as viable, alternative source of beef for the Chinese.

A letter to Trump was signed by leaders of NCBA, the U.S. Meat Export Federation and the North American Meat Institute.

AUDIO: Kent Bacus