NAFTA Replacement Predicted to Boost Protein Exports

Industry experts say the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement could lead to modest export gains for U.S. poultry, pork, and beef.  A new report from CoBank says the agreement is expected to keep tariffs on food and agriculture between the three countries at zero.

The report says the U.S. chicken sector exports are predicted to rise 47,000 metric tons in Canada during the first year of the USMCA. U.S. turkey shipments are predicted to increase by 1,000 metric tons annually. The CoBank report says the major holdup to increasing growth in other U.S. protein sectors is the pending removal of Canadian tariffs on prepared beef products, as well as Mexican tariffs on pork that were also put in place earlier this year.

The report also says that the USMCA seems to be a combination of terms from NAFTA and the TPP, which the president dumped just days after taking office.  CoBank expects the new USMCA agreement to be ratified by all three countries sometime in 2019.

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