News

A waiting game on the southern border

USDA officials are still weighing when, or if, live cattle imports from Mexico can resume. 

The threat of New World screwworm is ongoing, and the department has been conducting risk assessments as it considers reopening the southern ports.  Undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs Dudley Hoskins says the department has employees in country monitoring the situation. “Collectively, the information, the surveillance, the trapping, all the data that they’re pulling, that is so instructive for us to know just from a risk assessment perspective, are things changing, are they improving,” he says. 

He tells Brownfield there isn’t one specific trigger that would allow trade to resume. “I think it’s more holistic about what the facts are telling us on the ground,” he says.

But as of right now, Hoskin says, “We’re still in the position where we’re not entertaining a deliberative decision on port reopening today.”

He says the department is also working with its counterparts in Mexico to monitor the situation for updates. 

AUDIO: Interview with Undersecretary Dudley Hoskins