CHINA is set to officially resume importing US beef, ending a 13 year ban.
The Wall Street Journal reported (CLICK HERE FOR THE WSJ STORY) that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hold told US business groups in New York on Tuesday night, that China would soon allow imports of US beef.
At this point there is no official agreement or timeline in place for the ban to be lifted.
Writing in the Agri Commodities Daily Alert, Comm Bank’s Tobin Gorey said significant volumes of US beef already enter China through grey channels.
Lifting the 13 year ban would likely see some redirection of existing US trade, he said.
“However, with the US beef production growing faster than the domestic market can absorb, legal access would allow US exports to widen further,” Mr Gorey said.
“That could, for a time, displace some Australian product in China.”
According to Meat an Livestock Australia, China is Australia’s fourth largest beef and largest sheepmeat export market by volume. In 2015 148,000 tonnes of beef and 60,000 tonnes of sheepmeat was exported to the market.
Mr Gorey said was a potential upside for Australia, if the US beef was legally allowed back into China.
US pricing tends to guide global beef markets,” Mr Gorey said. “Moving heavy US beef supplies from origin is probably a positive for global prices. That might alleviate some of the competing pressures in Australian cattle and beef markets as the national herd is rebuilt.”
China banned US beef imports in 2003 when “mad cow” disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was detected in the US cattle herd. The World Animal Health Organisation now rates the risk of BSE as negligible.
The promise of US access to China follows the opening up of fresh beef markets between the US and Brazil. CLICK HERE to read that story.
