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Cattle group backs possible USMCA withdrawal, calls for stronger import protections

As talks between the United States, Mexico, and Canada continue, President Trump recently said the US may not renew the USMCA trade deal.

Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, the nation’s largest producer-only cattle trade association, says the group would be fully supportive of the move. “If you expand access to cheaper imports from around the world to the United States, what you do is you allow additional supply into the domestic market,” he says.  “It’s a perfect substitute for U.S.-produced beef and cattle, and it undercuts the domestic producers’ prices.”

He tells Brownfield there is a path where R-CALF could support USMCA, but significant changes are needed. “Number one: required mandatory country of origin labeling so consumers could choose from which country they want their beef produced,” he says. He says tariff rate quotas would also be needed to limit the volume of imports from Canada and Mexico.  “And establish meaningful tariffs that would offset the advantages that Canada and Mexico have as a result of lower production costs, differences in currency valuation, and differences in the use of various veterinary biologics, for example,” he says. 

Since the USMCA, which was negotiated and signed during the President’s first administration, was enacted, the value of ag exports to Canada and Mexico has increased by 47 percent and the two countries remain top overall markets for US ag goods.

Earlier this year, 156 ag groups signed a letter earlier this year supporting the agreement’s renewal. 

During an interview with Brownfield last fall, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture CEO Ted McKinney, who served as the USDA’s first Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs from 2017 to 2021 and played a critical role in the development and implementation of the department’s trade policies, said the USMCA is the best free trade agreement in the world and is the model that must be kept.

The review is underway, and the next round of formal negotiations are set for July.

AUDIO: Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA