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NPPC Urges Passage Of Deal With Panama
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30, 2011 – The National Pork Producers Council, in congressional testimony today, urged the Obama administration to send to Congress, and lawmakers to approve before August, legislation implementing the free trade agreement with Panama.
Testifying before the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, NPPC President Doug Wolf, a producer from Lancaster, Wis., said the United States cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and allow other countries to take U.S. market shares in nations with which they are implementing their own trade deals.
“There is no standing still when it comes to trade,” Wolf said. “If we do not implement the trade agreements we have negotiated, such as the Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, and fail to move ahead with new ones, we will forfeit those sales to foreign competitors who are aggressively negotiating free trade deals of their own.”
According to Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes, the Panama Trade Promotion Agreement would increase U.S. live hog prices by $0.20 per animal and create approximately 213 full-time positions in the pork industry.
Wolf also requested that the free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea be sent up and approved before Congress takes its month-long recess in August.
The FTA with Colombia, when fully implemented, would add $1.15 to the price producers receive for each hog marketed and would create 919 U.S. jobs, according to Hayes. The deal with Korea would add $10 per hog and create more than 9,100 pork industry jobs.
“At this time of very tight budgets, America’s pork producers are not asking for U.S. tax dollars,” Wolf said. “What we are asking is that our government take actions necessary to keep us competitive in global markets so that we can retain and expand those markets and, in turn, can keep creating new U.S. jobs.”
Parham Named New APHIS Administrator
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 29, 2011 – The National Pork Producers Council today praised the appointment of Dr. Gregory Parham as administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Dr. Parham, who previously was associate administrator at APHIS, takes over from Cindy Smith who has served as administrator since 2007. Dr. Parham was appointed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as the 13th administrator of the agency.
“NPPC looks forward to working with Dr. Parham and to continuing our close relationship with APHIS,” said NPPC President Doug Wolf, a pork producer from Lancaster, Wis. "With his extensive background in USDA programs, including food safety and animal health, Dr. Parham is well suited to meet the growing challenges faced by animal agriculture domestically and globally."
NPPC also expressed its gratitude to Smith for her years of service as APHIS administrator.
“She was a great administrator and good friend to animal agriculture,” Wolf said. "Her leadership on a number of pork industry issues was especially beneficial to U.S. pork producers."
NPPC Scores CAFO Suit Victory Over EPA
Washington, March 15 - In a unanimous decision issued today, a federal court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot require livestock operations to obtain Clean Water Act (CWA) permits unless and until they have a discharge of manure into a waterway of the United States. The decision is a major victory for pork producers, said the National Pork Producers Council.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans said that EPA exceeded its statutory authority in requiring concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that propose or that might discharge to apply for CWA permits.
NPPC, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the United Egg Producers and several other agricultural groups sued EPA over its so-called CAFO rule, which was issued in 2008 after EPA’s core provision in the initial 2003 regulation was struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York City. In that 2005 decision, the court ruled that the CWA requires permits only for producers who actually discharge. EPA had sought to require permits even for operations that had a “potential” to discharge.
The 2008 regulation, which set a zero-discharge standard, included a duty to apply for a CWA permit for all CAFOs that discharge or “propose” to discharge. The rule essentially established a presumption that CAFOs “proposed” to discharge if any future discharge occurred. The rule covered production areas and crop land on which manure is applied and imposed fines of up to $37,500 a day not only for illegal discharges but for the failure of a CAFO that had a discharge to apply for a CWA permit.
“NPPC is very pleased with the 5th Circuit’s decision,” said NPPC President Doug Wolf, a pork producer from Lancaster, Wis. “The court recognized a clear limit on EPA’s authority and required the agency to comply with the clean water law.”
In arguments before the 5th Circuit, NPPC said the 2008 rule’s duty to apply “constitutes a thinly veiled effort to impose the same duty to apply that was invalidated” by the 2nd Circuit. It also argued that the “failure to apply” violation creates substantial economic pressure to apply for a CWA permit and that the regulation shifts the burden to a non-permitted CAFO that has a discharge to establish that it did not “propose” to discharge.
The 5th Circuit Court agreed with NPPC’s arguments, ruling on the “duty to apply” provision that previous court cases “leave no doubt that there must be an actual discharge … to trigger the CWA’s requirements and EPA’s authority.” It also struck down the CAFO rule’s “failure to apply” provision, stating that its imposition is “outside the bounds of the CWA’s mandate.”
“Pork producers have worked hard to meet, and are meeting, the zero-discharge standard, which the pork industry has embraced,” Wolf said. “Getting a federal permit is irrelevant to meeting the standard. The time, effort and cost of getting one is a complete waste when all that permit will do is tell producers to do exactly what they already are required and fully intend to do – not have a discharge.”
Phoenix, Arizona, March 4, 2011 - Doug Wolf, a producer from Lancaster, Wis., today was named president of the National Pork Producers Council. He was elected to the post for a one-year term at NPPC’s annual business meeting – the National Pork Industry Forum – held here.
Wolf is a partner in Wolf L & G Farms LLC, with his wife Kris and son Shannon. They run a 1,200-sow farrow-to-finish operation, which markets 24,000 hogs annually. The farm also includes a cow-calf herd, feedlot and 1,200 crop acres on which corn, soybeans and alfalfa are raised.
Wolf has served on the NPPC board of directors for the past four years. He has been involved with the Wisconsin Pork Association, the Grant County (Wis.) Pork Producers, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
“Doug has been a strong leader in the U.S. pork industry and brings that leadership and knowledge of pork industry issues to his new position as president of NPPC,” said NPPC CEO Neil Dierks. “He is a valuable asset to U.S. pork producers.”
U.S., Mexico Reach Deal On Trucking Dispute
Washington, March 3, 2011 - The National Pork Producers Council praised the Obama administration for announcing today an agreement in principle with Mexico to resolve a trade impasse over allowing Mexican trucks to haul goods into the United States.
The trucking dispute prompted Mexico to place tariffs on a host of U.S. products, including pork. In August, Mexico put a 5 percent tariff on U.S. bone-in hams – a big export item – and 20 percent on cooked pork skins in retaliation for the United States not complying with the trucking provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The provision was supposed to become effective in December 1995.
The National Pork Producers Council has been urging the Obama administration to resolve as quickly as possible the trucking issue, which erupted in March 2009 when Mexico placed higher tariffs on an estimated $2.4 billion of U.S. goods after the U.S. Congress cut off funding to renew a pilot program that let a limited number of Mexican trucking companies to haul freight beyond a 25-mile U.S. commercial zone.
“This is great news for the U.S. pork industry, as well as for other sectors affected by Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs,” said NPPC President Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa. “Pork producers have been hurt by this retaliation.
“So we’re grateful to President Obama, Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood, USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk for their efforts in reaching this agreement with Mexico. We’re also grateful to President Calderon and his administration for their efforts on this issue.”
NPPC cautioned that the issue won’t be completely resolved until the United States is in full compliance with its NAFTA obligation on trucking. Mexico has agreed to suspend its retaliatory tariffs. Opponents of the NAFTA trucking provision claim there are safety issues with Mexican trucks, but available data, including data collected as part of the pilot program, demonstrate the safety of Mexican trucks, which must meet U.S. standards.
“I have no doubt the data generated under the new agreement will show that Mexican trucks are safe,” Carney said. “It is imperative that Congress support this agreement. Any attempt to stop or otherwise undermine the agreement will invite Mexico to reinstate retaliatory duties on pork and other products, causing the United States to lose exports and jobs.”
Mexico is the second largest market for the U.S. pork industry, which shipped $986 million of pork south of the border in 2010. Since 1993 – the year before NAFTA was implemented – U.S. pork exports to Mexico have increased by 780 percent.
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