BRAZIL-JBS-SWIFT WARN UNITED STATES ON TRADE RELATIONS WITH MEXICO AND CANADA.
As trade relations with Canada and Mexico have been tested following the recent implementation of mandatory country-of-origin labeling and a cross-border trucking dispute, the United States must carefully manage the situation.
Dan Halstrom, executive vice president of international sales for JBS and past chairman of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, emphasized in a weekly USMEF report that trade with these two countries is critical to the U.S. meat industry.
"If we’re not able to go to Mexico, for example, the largest market for (U.S.) beef and pork tonnage wise, it would be a large negative impact on domestic prices on both beef and pork," he said. "So that’s the reason we have to manage it closely. We have to communicate with our trade partners and make sure we’re all the same page."
Nonetheless, Halstrom said demand for U.S. beef and pork in both Canada and Mexico remains strong.
Worldwide, Halstrom said the credit crunch is still posing challenges but "hopefully the worst is behind us." He said major importing countries still do not have sufficient domestic production, so they will continue to rely on imports.
"When it comes to grain-fed beef and pork, the U.S. still has quite the advantage," he said.
The mainstay markets of Japan, Mexico, Canada and South Korea have been consistent in the past and will continue to be very consistent, Halstrom said.