LatinNews Daily - 03 December 2018

Argentina: On 26 November the Argentine government led by President Mauricio Macri announced that the country would once again export beef to the US, after the US government banned Argentine beef exports 17 years ago over food safety concerns. The US has declared that measures employed by Argentina to ensure the “safety of bovine meats” now meet the “appropriate level of sanitary protection”. An official statement said that the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis) wishes to implement an equivalence between the two countries. Argentina’s foreign minister, Jorge Faurie, emphasised the “importance of this decision for the Argentine agricultural industry”, due to the new business opportunities for producers and exporters. Production & Labour Minister Dante Sica added that regaining access to the US market reinforces the importance of moving forward with business on the global market. The terms of the arrangement allow Argentine producers to export up to 20,000 tonnes of meat per year to the US, representing between US$150m-US$180m. Exports exceeding this volume will be taxed an additional tariff of 26.4%. Around 80% of exports will consist of lean meat for the US hamburger industry. The remaining 20% will be “high quality cuts”, sold as ‘premium products’. In 2015, Aphis authorised the importation of fresh beef from Argentina. This had been banned since 2001 due to the presence of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Argentina, present in the country until 2007.

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