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Washington,
May 14 – China gave official notice Friday that it is accepting shipments
of U.S.
pork, a move hailed by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). Pork
produced on or after May 1 now can be exported to China.
The Asian nation closed its 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 United
States and China
reached an agreement to reopen the Chinese market to U.S.
pork imports, but it took China
until now to begin accepting product.
“This is tremendous news for U.S. pork producers,” said NPPC President Sam
Carney, a pork producer from Adair,
Iowa. “China
is one of our biggest markets, so being able to ship pork there is extremely
important to the U.S.
pork industry. Now that it can be sent to the Chinese market, we will focus on
the remaining impediments to exporting U.S.
pork to China,” Carney
said.
NPPC is continuing to urge the Obama
administration to press China
to address a number of other trade-related issues that limit U.S.
pork imports. Among those issues are China’s
ban on U.S. pork produced
with ractopamine (an FDA-approved feed ingredient which improves efficiency in
pork production), subsidies which China
provides to its domestic pork producers, and a value-added
tax China
imposes on imports.
The U.S.
pork industry exported nearly 400,000 metric tons of pork worth nearly $690
million to China/Hong Kong in 2008, making China/Hong Kong the No. 3
destination for U.S.
pork. Last year, U.S.
pork exports to China/Hong Kong were down by 38 percent, falling to just under
$427 million.
In October, at the conclusion of the annual U.S.-China
Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, China announced that it would
rescind its pork import ban. Since then, NPPC worked closely with the Obama
administration to pressure the Chinese to actually lift their ban and begin
accepting U.S.
pork imports.
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