To ensure this outcome, the red meat industry does not support opening the SPS Agreement for further negotiation in the next trade round. In addition, stricter disciplines and tougher enforcement mechanisms should be established to prevent the emergence of new schemes to circumvent WTO rules. Existing duties in key export markets such as Japan and Korea must be reduced to single digit levels and a target date must be established for reducing all tariffs to zero. Until elimination of duties can be accomplished, existing tariff rate quotas must continue to be expanded to permit continued growth in exports. From the beef industry perspective the last point may be the most crucial.
Price still drives the effective demand for our product.
While we have done well in the Asian countries, tariff reduction must be one of the main keys to exporting more red meat to countries with high tariffs. Indeed, it is these low prices and industry losses that result in herd reduction and declining supplies. Producer unrest has resulted from low prices for agricultural commodities and the threat of protectionism is rearing its ugly head. The storm clouds of unrest include calls for dumping lawsuits, blockading borders and other retaliatory measures to restrict trade. The current definition of dumping under WTO rules does not make sense for commodity markets like beef because one of the criteria to file a dumping case is that the commodity must be sold below the cost of production in the importing country.