03/12/07 NCBA & RCALF oppose Argentine imports

American Rancher March 12, 2007 The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and R-CALF USA are seeing eye-to-eye on something. That is they both oppose USDA's proposal to allow imports of fresh and frozen meat from Argentina's Patagonia South region. As Terry Stokes of the NCBA explains, the concern is Foot and Mouth disease, FMD and keeping it out of the United States. Stokes: "The problem with this particular proposal is that Patagonia south is in close proximity to areas of South America that have ongoing problems with FMD. And we are not convinced that the border controls are adequate to make sure that FMD cannot make its way into this region." Bill Bullard of R-CALF USA sees other potential impacts from allowing in the Argentine meat. Bullard: "Japan didn't import beef didn't import beef from Argentina in 2005. Korea only imported a small volume of beef and those are major trading partners for the U.S. So we would be bringing product into this country that has a stigma attached to it which could in fact make it even more difficult for us to open some of our closed borders. We have a multi-billion dollar trade deficit in cattle and beef right now and this proposal would merely exacerbate that problem." The comment period on the USDA proposal recently closed. I'm Bob Hoff.