NCBA

[rancher]

NCBA Satellite Forum on Canadian Trade Issues tonight. Wonder if they will answer questions or dance around like usual. That is why I don't like these dog and pony shows, not one question of callers if answered. Looks like none of their 11-Point Directive on Reopening the Canadian Border to Live Cattle will be met either. Wonder what the members think of these.

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NCBA Update on 11-Point Directive on Reopening the Canadian Border to Live Cattle
At the Cattle Industry's Annual Convention in San Antonio, NCBA members passed an 11-point directive on the reopening of the Canadian border to live cattle. Accomplishing all 11 points is top priority for NCBA. Our volunteer leaders have made numerous visits to Washington D.C. since early February, we have dedicated three full-time staffers in our Washington, D.C. office as well as additional staff in the Denver office to work tirelessly on this directive. NCBA is aware of the importance of this issue. In an effort to keep all members up to date on the progress of this directive, we will be providing an update on each of the 11 points through Member eUpdates. Please look for future pieces to follow in subsequent eUpdates until all 11 points have been addressed.

Point 7: USDA grades and stamps are not allowed on any imported product.

Status: Using the strictest interpretation of the rule, U.S. grade stamps can only be used on imported carcasses eligible for the U.S. grade and may not be used on imported boxed beef. Currently there is, virtually no beef products imported into the U.S. as carcasses. Instead they are imported as boxed-beef, therefore making the ineligible for the U.S. grade stamp under the current rule.

Analysis: However, industry and government sources say preventing imported beef and lamb from receiving a USDA grade would violate national treatment rules under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Article 3.1 states that imported products of a WTO member "shall be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to like products of national origin in respect of all laws, regulations."

Bottom Line: This directive is being met given that, virtually all beef is imported as boxed beef and under the current rule boxed beef can not be stamped a U.S. grade. Additionally, realizing that further legislating this issue, to provide language that would prohibit all beef imports, regardless of form, from receiving the U.S. grade stamp would be a violation of world trade agreements, NCBA is pushing USDA to fully consider all possible options toward resolution of producer concerns over the use of the USDA Grade Stamp on imported meat and animals.

 

[HAY MAKER]

RANCHER I read a post today that had ncba saying they had all ten of the points done and making good progress on number eleven??????............good luck PS I wish JAN LYONNS was on tonite she was the only thing I liked about the NCBA.

 

[rancher]

This is NCBA idea on Cafta

Bruce Hafenfeld, a rancher from Weldon, California, is testifying today before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means regarding the Central America - Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). Hafenfeld is on the board of directors for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and serves as the first vice-president of the California Cattlemen's Association (CCA).

"We firmly believe CAFTA-DR will correct a long-standing inequity in beef trade policy between the United States and these six nations, offer additional export opportunities for U.S. beef, and ultimately increase the value of cattle raised on my ranch," says Hafenfeld. "CAFTA-DR is unique in that America's beef cattle producers are granting few, if any, concessions in exchange for these increased export opportunities. In fact, we have already been paying for this agreement for several years without getting the export market access we need in return."

Currently, beef from CAFTA-DR countries is allowed into the U.S. marketplace duty-free, while U.S. beef exports to these same countries face tariffs ranging from 15 to 40 percent. Due to these tariff levels, U.S. beef exports to these countries are limited.

"This dynamic, in which beef exporters in CAFTA-DR nations have virtually unlimited access to the U.S. beef marketplace while trade barriers prevent the entry of U.S. beef, is fundamentally unfair to U.S. cattle producers," explains Hafenfeld. "We produce the highest-quality, safest beef in the world. Yet, if we are to remain competitive in the increasingly global beef marketplace, we must have agricultural trade policies which promote U.S. cattlemen's export interests."

Under CAFTA-DR, the United States would gain immediate, duty-free, quota-free access for high-quality U.S. beef, with all remaining tariffs being eliminated over a period of fifteen years. NCBA's analysis of this agreement suggests the United States could triple beef and beef product exports to the region by 2015, with only slight increases foreseen in beef imports from these six countries. This level of increased exports translates into a potential $1.06 per head benefit to U.S. cattlemen.

"With 96 percent of the world's population living outside the United States, we must promote our U.S. beef in the global marketplace, says Hafenfeld. "But border closures to our exports transformed a $1.2 billion trade surplus in 2003 into a $2.8 billion trade deficit in 2004. The current situation is absolutely unacceptable. Right now, CAFTA-DR countries have fully reopened their borders to U.S. beef, and passage of this agreement would immediately boost our export opportunities at this crucial time for cattle producers."

Historically, the United States has been the world's top provider of high-quality, grain-fed beef and has been able to maintain trade surpluses in beef and beef products for many years. This trade surplus position contributes significantly to the prices received by beef cattle producers for their cattle and calves. Cattle industry economists estimate that in a normal year international trade adds $175 to the value of a finished steer. However, this trade surplus position in beef and beef products was halted by the December 23, 2003 identification of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a single imported dairy cow, and the subsequent closure of 90 percent of U.S. beef export markets.

"A vote in support of CAFTA-DR is a vote to provide me and my fellow U.S. beef cattle producers the ability to export our products free of prohibitive trade barriers," explains Hafenfeld. "Cattlemen and cattlewomen throughout the United States know that this is an excellent agreement for our families and for all of American agriculture. When 99 percent of the agricultural products the CAFTA-DR countries send to the U.S. currently enter duty-free, we need an agreement like this to balance the trade relationship. We urge swift passage by Congress."

For more information about the beef provisions of CAFTA-DR, and NCBA's economic analysis, please visit http://hill.beef.org/cafta.

This is R-calf views
Opposition to CAFTA Continues to Grow
(Billings, Mont.) – Cattle producers and crop producers alike stood side-by-side Wednesday with state government leaders and members of Congress at two separate, bipartisan news conferences held to explain the negative impacts that the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) would have on U.S. agriculture and the U.S. cattle industry. The events preceded a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on CAFTA scheduled for today.

In Washington, D.C., nearly two dozen Senate and House members – both Republicans and Democrats – were joined at a news conference by 23 business and labor groups that also oppose CAFTA. U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., led the Capitol Hill event. Jess Peterson, R-CALF USA director of government relations, said CAFTA – as it is currently written – is simply unacceptable because it undermines the ability of U.S. cattle producers to compete in the global marketplace because the agreement fails to address the global distortions the domestic cattle industry continues to face.

"Under the Trade Promotion Act of 2002, cattle and beef are required to be classified as perishable and cyclical products, and because of this provision, a special safeguard must be put into place to ensure that rising imports and collapsing exports do not impede upon cattle producers' ability to compete globally," Peterson explained. "CAFTA does not permit the United States to have any special safeguards against beef and live cattle import surges, but it does allow Costa Rica and Nicaragua to impose special safeguards against U.S. beef exports. Denying U.S. cattle producers special safeguards is a step backward from the progress made in the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement prototype."

Also on Wednesday, in Fargo, N.D., another news conference in opposition to CAFTA was underway in anticipation of today's visit to that city by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, a staunch supporter of CAFTA.

Terry Duppong, an R-CALF USA member and North Dakota rancher, spoke at Wednesday's event, which also was attended by North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, State Sen. Russell Thane (who sponsored that state's anti-CAFTA resolution), along with representatives of North Dakota Farmers Union, North Dakota Grain Growers, and the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association.

"CAFTA is troubling to U.S. ranchers because it appears the Administration's present agenda is to negotiation free trade agreements (FTAs) with nearly every major beef-producing country in the world, but not one single major beef-consuming country," Duppong emphasized. "Other problems faced by U.S. producers include blocks on beef exports because of illegal sanitary-phytosanitary measures, subsidies provided to foreign producers that give them an unfair advantage over U.S. ranchers, and export tariffs of over 80 percent, while our import tariff rate is almost zero."

Duppong also pointed out that CAFTA nations have a combined cattle herd size nearly as large as the Canadian cattle herd.

"Currently, these countries do not have strong cattle industries, but with an increased export market these countries will upgrade both herds and slaughter capacity," he said. "Those improvements will enable these CAFTA countries to meet domestic demands for beef and increase beef exports to the United States."

Peterson added that CAFTA also allows cattle produced in nations like Brazil and Argentina to be shipped north to be slaughtered in Central America, thus providing preferential treatment to non-participating countries.

"Trade agreements need to have a "born and raised" standard for country of origin," he pointed out. "Instead, CAFTA gives preferential treatment for beef based only on where an animal is slaughtered.

"R-CALF USA will continue to work for trade agreements that are good for independent U.S. ranchers, and we also pledge to work with the Administration to develop approaches to trade agreements that will be a win for both U.S. cattle producers and our trading partners," Peterson continued. "We cannot support agreements that create bad precedents for future free trade agreements.

 

[rancher]

Watched a half hour of it and will be first to say that since Jan is gone they are trying to answer the questions so far. One thing I have picked up so far is they can't say Japan says to open the border to Canada before the take our beef. They use the word indicated, might have to look up the meaning of indicated and see if all these years I had the wrong meaning for it.