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Concerns remain about Paraguay beef imports

The U.S. cattle industry remains concerned about the USDA’s recent decision to allow beef imports from Paraguay. 

Kent Bacus with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association tells Brownfield the objection has nothing to do with competition and everything to do with animal health. “Yeah, they could put the health of our herd at risk, and that’s all we’ve asked USDA to do is to scale this back and actually have some due diligence and report off of recent site visits, and until they do that, we’re going to continue to press this.”

Bacus says USDA is allowing imports without updated site inspections. “The fact that you had these outdated in-person in-country visits in 2008 and 2014, that just doesn’t cut it.”

U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (SD) and Jon Tester (MT)  recently introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would overturn the Biden Administration’s recent decision to lift a long-standing ban on beef imports from Paraguay.  

Bacus says the U.S. has a global reputation as the gold standard for beef production, and the industry can’t afford to compromise that.