The National Pork Producers Council voiced its support after the USMCA trade agreement was officially signed by President Trump Wednesday.
“USMCA provides U.S. pork producers with certainty in two of our largest export markets and we thank President Trump and his administration for making USMCA a top priority,” said NPPC President David Herring, a hog farmer from Lillington, N.C. “We look forward to implementation of a trade deal that preserves zero-tariff pork trade in North America.”
Herring was in attendance at the White House alongside seven other NPPC board members from six different states.
In 2018, Canada and Mexico made up more than 40 percent of the pork exports from the United States. Exports to Canada and Mexico support a total of 16,000 U.S. jobs.
“With USMCA now signed into law, NPPC is focused on another top trade priority for U.S. pork producers: unrestricted access to China,” Herring said. “We believe that pork will be the litmus test for China’s compliance with its phase-one purchase commitments to the United States. We urge China to eliminate the 60 percent punitive tariffs and other restrictions on U.S. pork exports. Tariff elimination would more than double annual U.S. pork sales, generate 184,000 new American jobs and reduce the overall trade deficit with China by nearly six percent, all within the next decade.”