Bush a friend to foreign U.S. beef trade

The George W. Bush administration has been especially friendly to overseas trade of U.S. beef. They have kept it on the front burner of all trade negotiations during his two terms in office. Predecessors shuffled beef trade off to the background or corners of previous trade efforts, but perhaps due to his Texas cattle connections, Bush has been a strong friend.

This has been particularly true since the first Mad Cow Disease discovery in the U.S. and the subsequent bans of U.S. beef in Japan and South Korea, our two biggest markets for American product, after our continental partners of Canada and Mexico. As Japan and South Korea have sought improved access to this country for their manufactured goods, the price has always been acceptance of more U.S. beef in their countries.

While Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who fancies himself a cattleman and great friend of agriculture, and is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, criticizes the Bush Administration on the issue for partisan advantage in this presidential election year, most objective observers applaud administration efforts. Bush trade chief Susan Schwab says the governments of South Korea and Japan understand that Congress will not budge on approving a coveted bilateral trade deal until the beef issue is resolved.

Closed markets for U.S. beef are largely blocked by political barriers, not the health smokescreens Asian and European nations throw up to protect their own inefficient, small domestic beef producers. Asian nations, previously quite open, use the Mad Cow Disease scare--very hypocritical, since they have had vastly more cases in their own cattle than the two discovered in the U.S. in dairy cows imported from Canada.

Similarly, Europe claims U.S. beef producers use unhealthy growth promotants, and allows virtually no U.S. beef on the continent. In truth, stilbesterol and other hormones far more damaging than any allowed in the U.S., are highly prevalent in samples of European beef the U.S. has tested. This is protectionism, not protection of health. U.S. beef is the healthiest product available, far beyond the standards these countries allow in their own domestically-produced beef.

Foreign trade is crucial to the future of the U.S. beef industry, as this country produces a surplus of its product that must be sold overseas. Beef sold overseas is higher value than that sold domestically, and serves as a safety valve source to sell beef to, when the domestic market is saturated. There are nativist forces in the beef industry led by R-CALF, who are unwilling to do what it takes to sell beef internationally, but they are in a small minority among U.S. catttlemen.

More each passing year, beef, like all businesses, is part of a global economy and the more progressive forces within the industry recognize the necessity of reaching beyond our borders. Led by the internet and easy worldwide travel, the world is smaller and more interdependent than ever before.

The Bush administration has recognized this truth, and pushed foreign trade virtually across the board. But beef has been a centerpiece of it's policy.