The National Pork Producers Council today hailed the announcement by the Bush administration that it will begin negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, a free trade agreement between Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei.
The United States in March began talks with the so-called Pacific 4, or P4, countries on investment and financial services as a precursor to possible U.S. membership in the regional free trade agreement. The FTA between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore went into effect in 2006. It includes an accession clause that allows other nations to join the agreement. Many anticipate that the Trans-Pacific arrangement will be the foundation upon which an Asia-Pacific free trade region can be built.
“This is an important step toward maintaining and expanding U.S. pork exports to the Asia-Pacific region,” said NPPC President Bryan Black, a pork producer from Canal Winchester, Ohio. “We look forward to the resolution of our market access issues with New Zealand and to the eventual accession of new nations to the agreement.”
“The nations of the Asia-Pacific region are negotiating a patchwork of trade agreements at a staggering pace that threaten to undermine U.S. exports and U.S. jobs and to diminish U.S. influence in the region,” said Nick Giordano, NPPC’s vice president and international trade counsel. “This new trade initiative will result in the negotiation of a high-standard, comprehensive agreement that can serve as the basis for an Asia-Pacific free trade region.”
New and expanded market access through trade agreements has been the most important catalyst for increasing U.S. pork exports. Since the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement was implemented in 1989, exports of U.S. pork products have grown to more than $3.1 billion in 2007 from $394 million.
Increased pork exports resulting from trade agreements are made possible in part because of the effective working relationship between NPPC and the National Pork Checkoff Board and their shared goal of increasing U.S. pork exports.
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Saying that they are a necessary tool to protect animal and public health, the National Pork Producers Council at a congressional hearing held today urged lawmakers not to restrict the use of antibiotics in pork production.
Testifying on behalf of NPPC, Dr. Craig Rowles, a veterinarian and partner with Elite Pork in Carroll, Iowa, told the House Agriculture Committee’s livestock subcommittee that pork producers use antibiotics to keep their animals healthy and produce safe, nutritious and quality pork. He said that producers work with their veterinarians to decide how, when and which antibiotics are administered.
Rowles pointed out that the U.S. pork industry has established programs – the Pork Quality Assurance Plus and the Take Care: Use Antibiotics Responsibly programs – that include principles and guidelines on antibiotic use that help protect animal and public health and animal well-being.
He said that banning certain antibiotics, as was done in Denmark, could have detrimental effects on pig mortality and even public health. Additionally, he told the committee, a ban would raise producers’ production costs by more than $700 million over 10 years.
“As a swine veterinarian, I need all the tools available to live up to [my] oath [to protect animal health, relieve animal suffering and promote public health],” Rowles told the panel. “Legislative attempts to ban certain antibiotics will compromise the oath that every veterinarian took on his or her graduation day.”
Several bills have been introduced in Congress over the years, including ones in the current Congress sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., to prohibit the use in livestock of certain antibiotics.
“Pork producers and veterinarians have a moral obligation to use antibiotics responsibly to protect human health and provide safe food,” said Dr. Jennifer Greiner, NPPC’s director of science and technology. “Producers also have an ethical obligation to maintain the health of their pigs. Antibiotics are merely one piece to the health care system that pigs need.”
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