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Passage of the South Korea, Panama and Columbia Free Trade Agreements was a major victory for cattle producers last year. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP could prove to be an even bigger win for the industry. NCBA’s Colin Woodall explained in this interview at the Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville.
TPP allows State Trading Enterprises (STE’s) like the New Zealand Dairy Board to keep artificial production levels. All those cull cows from Fonterra, the monopolistic dairy behemoth, will be flooding the U.S. market with cull cow beef that competes directly with U.S. ranchers.
Nations such as Chile and Peru offer a route for other South American countries (think Brazil) to by-pass their trade obligations to the U.S. by trans-shipping beef or further processing in TPP countries to mask the true country of origin.
The absence of country-of-origin labeling allows foreign processors to import feeder cattle, finished cattle and beef to be further processed in their country and then ship the beef as being from Chile or Peru.
TPP will result in more American jobs being lost and more American cattle farmers going belly up.
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