Cattle group voices concern over counter-cyclical imports
WECOTA, S.D. - The
counter cyclical beef import
law, as passed by Congress
and supported by the
National Cattlemen’s
Association, will be one of
the biggest hurdles cow-calf
operators will have to
overcome past economic
losses, the Concerned
Cattlemen reveal.
Under the new law, 480
million pounds more
(product weight) beef will
enter the United States in
1980, Chuck Bellman,
spokesman for the group,
says.
The Meat Import Act of
1964 which the U.S. has been
operating under, would have
allowed 1.2 billion pounds.
The new Act will allow 1.68
billion pounds.
Bellman 'said the ad
ditional beef is equivalent to
almost 200,000 head of cows.
All fresh, frozen and chilled
imports will be near to 6.75
million head or the total U.S.
cow slaughter during years
of non-liquidation.
In addition to fresh, frozen
and chilled beef, live
animals can be imported in
unlimited quantities, he
said.
Imported fresh, frozen and
chilled beef is high chemical
lean. Because it is low in-fat
content, it is mixed with fat
from choice U.S. slaughter
animals and then sold as
domestic hamburger.
A customs law says that
“the manufacturer is the
consumer,” Bellman says.
Once the beef is “con
sumed,” it no longer needs to
be marked “imported” and
can enter the supply pipeline
as a U.S. product.
The reason more beef will
be' allowed under the new
law, Bellman says, is that a
floor of 1.25 billion pounds
has been established and the
volume is tied to cow
numbers. The NCA was the
proponent of the “cow
number theory.” They also
negotiated the 1.25-billion
pound base at hearings
before committees in
Washington, D.C.
Bellman said the Con
cerned Cattlemen and some
other groups backed a price
factor that would be the
determinant of beef imports.
What NCA failed to
recognize, he said, was that
oversupplies of pork and
chicken, as we are seeing
today, couldkeep beef prices
low even when cow numbers
are diminishing.
A price factor to deter
mine imports. Bellman
contends, would have been
sensitive to the needs of the
cow-calf operator. It would
have considered the Bellman said, because dustry will have to live with “Under current policies,
economic needs of the in- supplies of beef outside the it. In the meantime, the only when the U.S. consumer
dustry rather than overall United States fluctuate, world’s largest importing eats up all the beef in the
demand for meat. often in a negative number. country of beef, the United world, the U.S. cow-calf
Cow numbers do not Now that we have the new States, opens up its doors operator will have a
dictate price of beef, law. Bellman savs. the in- January Ito even more beef, chance,” he said.
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