DTB AgriTrade has worked closely with the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) on many trade policy issues.
Thailand Market Access
Recently, DTB assisted a successful effort by the NPPC to remove Generalized System of Preference (GSP) benefits from Thailand, due to that country’s ongoing and WTO inconsistent restrictions on pork imports. NPPC was able to argue successfully that Thailand had not met the requirements of the GSP program, because it does not provide equitable and reasonable market access for critical U.S. exports, like pork. In October 2020, USTR removed Thailand’s GSP benefits due to its lack of progress on pork market access.
Removing GSP benefits provided the U.S. pork industry with more leverage in addressing market access issues such as Thailand’s ban on pork produced with ractopamine, its ban on uncooked pork and pork offal, its highly restrictive import permit system, and excessive import fees.
Euopean Market Access
DTB AgriTrade was also instrumental in assisting NPPC in discussions with USTR concerning the European Union and United Kingdom’s tariff rate quota (TRQ) arrangements for pork post-Brexit. While it was part of the EU customs union, the UK shared TRQs with all other EU members, but upon Brexit those quotas were to be split, potentially limiting the value of each market to exporters. As a result of the discussions with USTR, and ensuing U.S. negotiations with the EU and UK, the U.S. pork industry was able to achieve optimal tariff rate quota arrangements for U.S. pork in both the UK and the EU.