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Farm-Scape, Episode 1275

The National Pork Producers Council says the next round of WTO negotiations offers the best opportunity to ensure sustained growth in US pork exports.

The National Pork Producers Council represents the US pork industry in areas which include trade, food safety, animal health and the environment and it wrapped up its annual World Pork Expo on Saturday.

NPPC International Trade Council Nick Giordano says US pork exports have set new sales records every year for the past 11 consecutive years and probably the single most important factor has been trade agreements.

"The Uruguay round and the NAFTA were milestones but, you look at a country like Japan which is our largest export market, we've only scratched the tip of the iceberg. Japan is not even tariffied.

When you look at the possibility alone in a market that's already a three quarters of a billion dollar market for us and a growing market and you look at this new WTO round there are, not just in Japan but around the globe, great opportunities to be had. We've had great growth.

Trade agreements and new market access is probably the single most important factor. As the benefits from the NAFTA and the Uruguay Round start to diminish and we start to tap out the new access and those agreements are fully phased in, we need the new agreements.

That's why we've been so aggressive on behalf of producers in fighting for new and expanded, not just protecting the agreements we have which is a full time job itself, but in going out aggressively and working for new agreements that open new markets for our pork producers".

Giordano suggests the next round of World Trade Organization negotiations offers opportunity to make further progress in expanding US exports.

He suggests the reduction of international import tariffs and European export subsidies on pork must be a key focus.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.