USMEF on Exports and Trade Pt 2
I’m Bob Larson. We talked yesterday about the importance of bringing a few pending trade deals across the finish line, sooner rather than later. U.S. Meat Export Federation Chairman, Cevin Jones says the two obvious deals, with the USMCA and China, would be nice to see before year’s end …JONES … “Yeah, that would be on my Christmas wish list, right? Yeah, USMCA, get that ratified and get that out, would be great and some sort of Chinese agreement would be fantastic, yep!”
The deal recently ratified by the Japanese; Jones says is very good news …
JONES … “We have a, basically, a 30% reduction in tariffs going into there for beef and pork and that will drop the headwinds there and get us back on a competitive playing field with our competitors going into there. So, looking forward to that.”
Jones says while the Japan deal is great news, and the USMCA and China would really help, there are other markets possibilities out there …
JONES … “We’ve got some of those issue that we need to get resolved, but I think we’ve got a good story, good opportunities overseas in a lot of different areas. One of the markets that we’re looking at is Central America and South America. You know, those markets are still relatively small on the export side, but we’re seeing good growth in all of those markets so it’s something on the horizon that we’re looking forward to.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on our trade outlook for 2020 and what Jones thinks could hold us up.