On this week’s audio report from the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), Thad Lively, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) senior vice president for trade access, provides his insight on the announcement that China has lifted its BSE-related ban on imports of U.S. beef.

In the report, Lively notes that lifting the ban is contingent on a list of requirements China has made in order to resume U.S. beef exports. He also explained that, while the beef industry and the U.S. government are committed to getting U.S. beef back into this important market, meeting the requirements has already been a long process and several important steps still remain.

According to Lively, the biggest hurdle to getting the ban on U.S. exports lifted was the process of convincing China that the U.S. has an effective means for tracing back to the birth premise for any of the meat we export to China.

“This is not something that we have in place in terms of mandatory animal ID, but we certainly are able to provide that level of assurance to the Chinese, and the industry has come together and agreed that it would be possible to put together a system that would allow us to meet Chinas requirements,” he said in the report. “There’s been a huge commitment on the part of the industry, and this current administration, to find solutions to the problems that have kept us out of the Chinese market.”

Learn more in the full audio report here:
USMEF Report, Gaining Access to China