By KC Sheperd | Oklahoma Farm Report
The federal government has taken an aggressive approach to negotiating access to new markets for American beef exports in the past, said Kent Bacus, executive director of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Association.
But Bacus said the Biden administration is using a completely different approach where treaty agreements are no longer the norm.
Bacus said the administration wants to have conversations about regulatory changes and adopting science-based standards but is not offering incentives or reasons to use those practices. He said market access has been taken off the table, which means tariff reductions.
“That means even though Thailand may be willing to adopt a science-based provision or two related to beef, they are still going to have a 50% tariff on some of our cuts that are going in there,” Bacus said. “It is really hard to move the needle to capture that foreign demand if we don’t have real access.”
However, Bacus said the Biden administration has been helpful with some key issues, such as renegotiating a safeguard into Japan.
“We have got to look bigger,” he said. “We have got to look for opportunities in the United Kingdom. A lot of things have been left on the table throughout the Pacific Rim, and until we are fully engaged – and we are talking about both tariff and non-tariff barriers – if is going to be hard to really deliver more gains for U.S. cattle producers.”
Bacus said one important factor on the policy side will be reauthorization of the Trade Promotion Policy.
“We need to make sure that Congress plays a very important role in these negotiations and that there is oversight involved so that you don’t have an administration that is off negotiating what they want, but they are negotiating what the people want,” he said. “That is really where Congress plays an important role. That is currently expired, and we need that to come back.”