News
NCBA, USMEF concerned about possible Chinese tariff on beef
The American beef industry hopes trade issues with China can be resolved quickly. China announced new potential tariffs against American products including beef Tuesday night.
Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation tells Brownfield unlike the imposed tariffs on pork announced earlier this week, the new Chinese tariff list has not been enacted. “This is not exactly the same proceeding as it’s related to a different set of actions on the U.S. side, but this is just a proposed list of retaliatory tariffs that would include U.S. beef, so the additional tariffs haven’t gone into effect on beef yet. We certainly hope that they won’t.”
Kent Bacus with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association agrees, saying there is still time to resolve the issues. “As of today, those tariffs from China have not been implemented. Those are contingent on U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods going into effect, so between now and then, there’s probably about a six to eight week period where USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) is going to take public comments. They’re going to hold a hearing and try to make that final determination of whether they move forward.”
And, Bacus would like to see the relatively-new China beef market keep growing. “China is not a big market for us now, but it will be later on. Just in six months of last year, we sold 31-million dollars worth of U.S. beef to Chinese consumers. Through January of this year, we sold seven million. We have a steady growing consumer base. We’re developing supply chains there. We don’t want to disrupt that.”
The potential new tariffs would be placed on 106 American products including soybeans, beef, corn, cotton, sorghum, wheat, dried cranberries, and frozen orange juice.
American cars, trucks, airplanes, plastics, and petroleum products are also on the list.
Add Comment