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China begins accepting U.S. pork shipments

China has given official notice that it is again accepting shipments of U.S. pork. 

The Chinese closed their market to U.S. pork in late April 2009 in the wake of an outbreak in humans of novel H1N1 influenza, which the media misnamed “swine” flu.  In March, the U.S. and China reached an agreement to reopen the Chinese markets to U.S. pork imports, but it took China until now to begin accepting product. 

National Pork Producers Council president Sam Carney of Adair, Iowa calls it “tremendous news for U.S. pork producers.”  Carney says with that issue resolved, NPPC will now focus on the remaining impediments to exporting U.S. pork to China.  Those include China’s ban on U.S. pork produced with ractopamine, an FDA-approved feed ingredient that improves efficiencies in pork production—subsidies China provides its domestic pork producers—and a value-added tax it imposes on imports.