WASHINGTON D.C.
The beef producers from the Five Nations Beef Alliance (FNBA) are calling on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) leaders to stay committed to securing “gold standard” outcomes in beef import reform talks.
The FNBA argues that a trade liberalizing, comprehensive TPP agreement which delivers transparent, plurilateral, non-discriminatory beef market access outcomes must be secured without compromising the ideals guiding current negotiations in favor of political expediency.
According to a press release, border protection measures and clear disciplines and consultative mechanisms necessary to deal with non-tariff trade barriers, like non-science based sanitary and technical impediments, are top priorities in these negotiations.
These issues have been the focus of the FNBA for multiple years now. Last year, Cattle Council President Andrew Ogilvie, from Kingston SE in South Australia, released a formal statement discussing the importance of these trade reforms.
"As a collective global beef industry, if we are going to feed a growing world population we need to facilitate the open and unrestricted trade of food around the world,” he said. “By removing trade barriers and tariffs to create fair and open access for all nations, the world’s population will have equal opportunity to a reliable and safe food supply without trade barriers inflating the cost of that food."
The FNBA, which is represented by Cattle Council of Australia, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, is calling on its members to stay true to this ideal going forward for the good of its members and the industry as a whole.
