Trade war a blow to U.S. pork producers: spokesperson

"Any time there is any potential restriction on our export opportunities, hog farmers and U.S. pork producers are very concerned. They are certainly concerned about the emerging trade war with China, and again, the Chinese market is very important to us. Obviously, China is the largest pork consuming nation in the world, we wanna export more pork to China, not less."

                                                            ——Jim Monroe, NPPC's Spokesperson

Chinese authorities have begun imposing tariffs worth an estimated 3 billion US dollars on US goods in response to the Trump administration's duties on imported Chinese steel and aluminum.

The decision to add tariffs on 128 US imported products came into effect on Monday.

The National Pork Producers Council in the United States represents hog farmers and pork producers' interests.

Farmer Jeff Rehder looks over some of his pigs, in Hawarden, Iowa on March 26, 2018. [Photo: AP]

Our reporter Liu Min has spoken with the NPPC's Spokesperson Jim Monroe to get hog farmers' opinions on the growing trade dispute between China and the US.

Questions and Answers:

Liu Min: So Mr. Jim Monroe, how important does the Chinese market mean to the Unites States in terms of pork exports?

Jim Monroe: Exports overall are very important for U.S. pork producers. Of all the pork that is produced in the United States, we export more than 26%. China is a very important market for U.S. pork. We produce a little over 20 billion Dollars of pork overall, and 6.5 billion Dollars of that is exported. Of that amount, 1.1 billion Dollars is exported to China. Last year, it was the second largest U.S. pork export market by volume. We shipped over a billion Dollars of pork products to China. You can understand how important it is the market for us.

Liu Min: The United States has a smaller population but consume a lot of pork. So if there is a great loss in the amount of pork exported to China and this translates to excess pork production, do you think the American domestic market can consume or make use of this excess amount of pork?

Jim Monroe: You know it's important to know that exports will drive all of the growth for the U.S. pork industry. You know we have strong demand for pork in the United States, but it's a mature market, and consumption level sustained about the same for the last several years. Markets outside the United States, where developing countries for example are adding more protein to their diets, that's where the growth is gonna come from. So markets like China, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, those are very very important markets for us.

Liu Min: What was the initial reaction from American farmers when they first learnt about the tariff concerning pork exports to China?

Jim Monroe: Our job and mission is to advocate to the U.S. government about the public policy interests of our U.S. pork producers. And again, their number one public policy interest is trade and exports. So any time there is any potential restriction on our export opportunities, hog farmers and U.S. pork producers are very concerned. They are certainly concerned about the emerging trade war with China, and again, the Chinese market is very important to us. Obviously, China is the largest pork consuming nation in the world, we wanna export more pork to China, not less.

Liu Min: Can you give us an example or an idea of what the annual net loss will look like for farmers who were producing pork for Chinese consumers, do you have any the statistics?

Jim Monroe: I can tell you this, the average value of a hog, you know a hog that was taken to the market in the United States last year, was 249 Dollars per hog. More than 53 Dollars of that is driven by exports. You know, close to a third of the value of a hog is driven by exports, so any time you restrict export opportunities, it creates negative financial impact for them. We would be at a severe competitive disadvantage, you know, other countries also export to China. When U.S. pork can compete on a level of playing field, we do very very well. We produce the highest quality, the safest, and the most affordable pork in the world.

Liu Min: So at this moment, on behalf of the American pork industry, what should be brought to the attention of heads of states, President of the United States Donald Trump and President of China Xijinping?

Jim Monroe: We believe in free trade. For the countries that we have free trade agreements with, and that's, we have 20 free trade agreements, the United States. We ship more pork to those 20 free trade agreements countries than we do to the rest of the world combined. So free trade works for us. It has driven a lot of growth for the U.S. pork industry and it's gonna continue to drive our growth. So we expect all countries to follow international rules, and to trade fairly. And to resolve trade disputes in a way that doesn't harm businesses, farmers or consumers.