Cattlemen see little benefit from NAFTA

US - The North American Free Trade Agreement has boosted the U.S. economy over the past dozen years, but glitches remain in its enforcement and some industries including Western cattle producers may not have shared the benefits, government and private officials testified Monday.
calendar icon 12 September 2006
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At a Senate hearing examining the effects of NAFTA since it took effect Jan. 1, 1994, federal officials praised the increased trade and investment it brought and recommended improvements. Agriculture groups and researchers testified about the winners and losers in its wake.

NAFTA has greatly increased the movement of beef and cattle products among the U.S., Canada and Mexico but the cow and calf sector may not have benefited, testified James Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.


"Certainly in Wyoming most of our producers would share my judgment that we have not seen any measurable, direct benefit," he said.

Some parts of the beef industry, especially packers and processors, are promoting the idea of a single North American beef industry, but the Wyoming group opposes such an idea, Magagna said.
Differences among environmental controls, labor laws, animal welfare requirements as well as economic and political policy make the idea of a single industry harmful, he said.

Source: The Billings Gazette

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