Farmscape for February 23, 2005  (Episode 1731)

The Canadian Pork Council's Trade Reference Committee will focus its efforts on convincing the US International Trade Commission that Canadian pigs entering the US benefit the American Industry, as it works for the elimination of US import duties.

Next month the US Department of Commerce is expected to uphold preliminary antidumping duties when it issues final determinations in countervail and antidumping investigations of live Canadian pigs entering the US.

In order for those duties to become permanent the US International Trade Commission will need to determine the imports actually harm US producers.

Trade Reference Committee Chair Edouard Asnong says support for eliminating the duties is building among US packing plants that need Canadian slaughter hogs and among US producers who need Canadian weanling and feeder pigs.

Clip-Edouard Asnong-Canadian Pork Council

US producers lobbied the Canadian producers to produce those piglets and weaners and so, if they want to stay in production, they are really depending on accessing Canadian baby pigs and weaners.

Also some US packers are able to operate at full capacity based on imports that they have from Canadian herds.

Also, we are not in a Canada-US market.

We have an integrated market and we are competing against the world.

If we look at some charts, the number of live hog exports to the US, if you look on a graph that line is perfectly in line with US exports of meat to the rest of the world.

Asnong says, rather than harming the US industry, Canadian pigs that move into the US are actually contributing to the success of the US industry.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council