Lost China opportunities could cost US beef industry $4 billion per year
High tariff rates that have applied since early April on imports from the US into China are already having an impact on the US beef industry, the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) has said.
Because the new tariffs that China has imposed on US imports (in response to steep new rates on shipments from there to the US) are additional tariffs, the rate for exports of US beef are now 147%, USMEF said.
It added that the rates for pork exports from the US are even higher, now reaching 172%.
These high tariff rates have “effectively halted” shipments of beef from the US to China, the export promotions body said, leaving meat exporters desperately trying to find new markets for consignments already prepared and labelled for the Chinese market.
USMEF’s vice-president for economic analysis, Erin Borror, said that China is the US’s top market for a range of beef products, including short plate and short rib. She explained that buyers in China import specific items in high volumes and “at premiums that other markets are unwilling to pay”.
She has calculated that missing out on shipping these products to China could cost the US up to $165 per head of cattle and a total of $4 billion per year in “lost opportunity”.
