There is no beating around the bush, U.S. pork took a hit from the effects of the ongoing Chinese trade war. However, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) remains optimistic about international pork exports.
NPPC Director of International Affairs Maria Zieba says U.S. pork found its way to over 100 countries around the world, and the numbers from countries with whom we have free-trade agreements were astounding.
Zieba says getting a trade agreement finished up with Japan is going to be a top priority. Japan was our largest pork customer in 2018, accounting for $1.6 billion dollars in U.S. pork exports.
Zieba says, unfortunately, NPPC did too good of a job negotiating terms for pork trade in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, before President Trump decided to pull the United States out of the deal. Now, we need to do these same negotiations a second time.
The NPPC is confident if we were able to get those favorable terms once, we should be able to do it again.
