U.S. pork exports to Mexico have fallen by a 20 percent since the Mexican government added pork to the list of U.S. products against which it is retaliating for the failure of the United States to live up to a trade obligation, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
In August, Mexico put a 5 percent tariff on most U.S. pork imports, as well as tariffs on other U.S. products, in reprisal for the United States not complying with a provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement that allows Mexican trucks to haul goods into the United States. The provision was supposed to become effective in December 1995.
In March 2009, Mexico placed higher tariffs on an estimated $2.4 billion of U.S. goods after Congress failed to renew a pilot program that let a limited number of Mexican trucking companies haul freight beyond a 25-mile U.S. commercial zone.
Mexico in August added products, including pork, dairy and apples, to its initial retaliation list of 89 products after the U.S. failed to present a proposal for resolving the trucking issue.
According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Canadian government, U.S. pork exports to Mexico dropped by nearly 5,000 tonnes from August to September –– a loss of about $9 million, according to NPPC –– while Canadian pork exports increased by almost 2,000 tonnes.
Mexico is the second largest market for the U.S. pork industry, which shipped $762 million of pork south of the border in 2009. Since 1993 –– the year before NAFTA was implemented –– U.S. pork exports to Mexico have increased by 580 percent.
