<Aug2010>

PRESS RELEASES

AUGUST

Livestock producers fear GIPSA rule's vagueness, unintended consequences

Mexico adds pork to trade retaliation list

Senate Approves Price Reporting Reauthorization

Mandatory Reporting Law Advances in the Senate

Livestock Producers Fear GIPSA

Rule’s Vagueness and Unintended Consequences

Fort Collins, CO., Aug 27 - Beef and pork producers rallied against USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration’s (GIPSA) proposed federal rule on the buying and selling of livestock at a public meeting held in Fort Collins, Colo., Aug. 27.

The meeting on competition in the livestock industry was hosted by USDA and Department of Justice. Producers voiced concerns to USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack about the unintended consequences of the proposed rule. Robbie LeValley, president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association; a cattle producer; and a co-owner of Homestead Meats, a family owned company marketing beef locally, is worried that the proposed rule could have a negative impact on her family business.

“Our innovation and our willingness to do direct marketing has basically now labeled us a packer and under the proposed rule, as I read it, now limits our marketing options – meaning not being able to sell to other packers,” she said. “While some say that is not the intent of the rule, the vagueness of the language makes it very possible.”

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) held a media briefing on Aug. 26 regarding the proposed rule. Pork and beef producers representing more than 20 states attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the GIPSA rule, expressing the negative effect it could have on their operations.

"As written, the GIPSA rule would limit my ability to sell hogs," said NPPC President Sam Carney, a producer from Adair, Iowa. "It's a solution in search of a problem. The markets work, and we don't need the government trying to 'fix' it. The GIPSA rule is overly broad and very vague. It would inject uncertainty into the market, stifle innovation and lead to less not more competition in the livestock industry."

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Mexico adds pork to trade retaliation list

WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 16, 2010 – The National Pork Producers Council today expressed its strong disappointment with the U.S. and Mexican governments’ actions related to allowing Mexican trucks into the United States. Mexico today added pork to the list of U.S. products against which it is retaliating for the failure of the United States to live up to its obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement to let Mexican trucks haul goods into the United States.

“Mexico’s retaliation against U.S. pork will have negative economic consequences for America’s pork producers,” said NPPC President Sam Carney, a producer from Adair, Iowa. “We are extremely disappointed that our top volume export market has taken this action, but we’re more disappointed that the United States is not living up to its trade obligations.

“That failure not only has hurt dozens of U.S. industries economically, but it could prompt other countries to think twice about entering into trade deals with the United States,” Carney added. “Our trading partners need assurance that the United States will live up to its trade obligations.”

The U.S. Congress in early March 2009 failed to renew a pilot program that allowed a limited number of Mexican trucks to haul freight into United States beyond a 25-mile commercial zone.

The Cross-Border Trucking Pilot Program was started by the U.S. Department of Transportation in September 2007 as a way to begin implementing the NAFTA trucking provision, which was supposed to take effect in December 1995.

In February 2001, a NAFTA dispute-settlement panel ruled that excluding Mexican trucks violated U.S. obligations under the trade deal. The ruling gave Mexico the right to retaliate against U.S. products, which it did in March 2009, placing higher tariffs on more than $2.4 billion of U.S. goods. Pork was not included on that initial retaliation list.

“Mexico is a top market for all kinds of U.S. exports, providing millions of jobs to U.S. workers,” said Carney. “The retaliation puts thousands of agricultural jobs at risk, including, now, pork industry jobs, and thousands of manufacturing jobs at risk.”

NPPC has been urging the Obama administration to work with Congress to quickly resolve the trucking issue with Mexico, which last year bought $762 million of U.S. pork.

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Senate Approves Price Reporting Reauthorization

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 6, 2010 – The Senate last night approved legislation to reauthorize the law requiring meat packers to report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the prices they pay producers for animals. The National Pork Producers Council strongly supports the law and its extension.

Senators passed by voice vote S. 3656, sponsored by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., to reauthorize for five years the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act, which is set to expire Sept. 30. The reauthorizing bill, which would extend the law to Sept. 30, 2015, also adds to the reporting law provisions requiring weekly reporting of pork exports – by price and volume – and of wholesale pork cuts.

“NPPC is grateful that the Senate has approved extension of this important law on mandatory price reporting,” said NPPC President Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa. “We implore the House to act swiftly on its bill reauthorizing the price reporting law, which will help producers make business and production decisions.”

Companion House legislation, sponsored by Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., was approved by that panel July 28. The full House is expected to take up the measure, H.R. 5852, after lawmakers return from a month-long recess. The reauthorized price reporting law will bring even more transparency and certainty to the livestock markets,” Carney said.

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Mandatory Reporting Law Advances in the Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2010 - The National Pork Producers Council today applauded the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee for approving legislation to reauthorize the law requiring meat packers to report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the prices they pay producers for animals.

The committee passed S. 3656, sponsored by committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., to reauthorize for five years the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act, which is set to expire Sept. 30. The committee bill also adds to the reporting law provisions requiring reporting of pork exports - by price and volume - and of wholesale pork cuts.

"We are very pleased that the Agriculture Committee approved legislation reauthorizing the mandatory price reporting law," said NPPC President Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa. "The addition of export and wholesale cuts reporting will further help producers like me make business and production decisions."

Companion House legislation, sponsored by Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., was approved by that panel July 28.

The last time the price reporting law was reauthorized - in September 2006 - three enhancements to the pork reporting provisions were added. They: Added more sows to the pricing reports to more accurately reflect the sales and prices paid in the sow market. Changed the timing for data reporting to help USDA with its workload and increase report accuracy and efficiency. Allowed USDA to publish price distributions for net prices to provide more useful information.

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