US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick announced today that US negotiators had reached an agreement "in principle" with Russia to resolve issues of US market access to Russia on poultry, beef and pork.
The agreement would reserve 74 percent of the Russian import market for poultry for US producers, four percent of the beef imports and between nine and eleven percent of pork imports.
US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick
Russia is establishing a global tariff rate quota on meat imports, which means it will set a certain level of tonnage that it will import. However, it is not clear what those tonnages for each product will be.
The resolution on this issue should also make it easier for Congress to approve membership of Russia in the World Trade Organization.
The National Chicken Council expressed pleasure with the announcement. "The revised quotas will give our companies better sales opportunities with Russia than has been possible under the existing quota system, as well as a more predictable framework for the future," the group said in a press release.
However, NCC added, "Trade with Russia involves more than import quotas ... we are still very concerned that differences remain over technical inspection requirements. We hope that these will be speedily resolved on a scientific basis." The National Pork Producers Council said the agreement will benefit the bottom line of US pork producers. "The agreement announced today establishes a country specific quota that will help shield US pork from dumped and subsidized pork exported by Brazil and the European Union to Russia," said NPPC President Jon Caspers. (MTD/CZ)
source: http://www.hpj.com/testnewstable.cfm?type=story&sid=9932 30sep03
|
If
you have come to this page from an outside location click
here to get back to mindfully.org |