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A boost to red meat exports in the first year of the Phase One trade deal

The US Meat Export Federation says red meat exports have to China have thrived in the first year of the US-China Phase One Agreement.  Joel Haggard, senior vice president for the Asia Pacific says pork exports to China would have been large in 2020 with or without the agreement because of China’s pork shortage. 

But, he says Phase One did provide a calming effect to what had been a turbulent few years of trade tensions between the US and China.  “Phase One also included some structural reforms to the very important process of how US red meat plants gain eligibility to China.”

However, he says beef exports did benefit from the agreement.  “US negotiators went back to the table as part of the Phase One talks and managed to move China more in-line with international standards especially on safe tolerances for hormone residues,” he says.  “Our exports have really taken off and the US has been exporting about two-thousand tons of beef a week to China.”  If that pace continues, Haggard says China will be one of the top five export markets for US beef. 

Pork exports to China in 2020 were record-large with a value of $2.28 billion, while beef exports grew more than 300 percent over 2019 with a year-over-year increase in value of 260%.