Meat quota in U.S. may be highest

Press, 15 January 1979, Page 18

Meat quota in U.S. may be highest

NZPA Staff Correspondent Washington The United States has confirmed that New Zealand’s share of its 1979 beef imports will be the 21.09 per cent it has had historically. New Zealand will therefore be able to ship 331.2 M pounds of beef this year, from the total import level of 1.57 billion. But New Zealand’s final export tally for the year could be even higher. There is a good chance it will be asked, as in 1978, to ship extra meat to cover anticipated shortfalls in exports by other suppliers, according to the New Zealand Embassy’s Minister (Commercial) and senior trade commissioner (Mr D. J. Walker). He said after talks with the Administration that the United States had asked all supplying , nations for prompt “realistic” assessments of what they could send this year. Because of developing shortages of domestic lean beef for the hamburger trade — the. type of meat supplied by foreign countries — the United States is anxious to import fully up to target levels. That is taken to mean the United States will not accept inflated figures of what is available. Last year, six of the 12 supplying nations — Canada, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and Mexico — were short of quota.

The short-fall totalled 65M lb from allowable imports of not quite 1.5 billion lb and was shared among the other exporting nations — Australia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras. New Zealand, and Nicaragua. New Zealand (16.3 M 1 b and Australia (39.8 M lb). got the bulk of the reallocation. They were, and still are, the only two exporters with significant additional stocks of beef available tor export. Although New Zealand was pleased to get the reallocation, the late timing of the decision was criticised. The Administration did not approve the reallocation until December, and if exporters had not anticipated it and shipped the meat earlier, the product would not have arrived by the year-end cut off, and would not have been entered against 1978 quotas. New Zealand, according to Mr Walker, is pressing for an early decision by the Americans of whether they will need additional meat from New Zealand. The Americans also want quick answers from all suppliers on what they will be able to ship. There is little surplus beef for export in the world this year and the Americans know that if they delay a short-fall decision as late as jvas the case in 1978, the meat may not be available when they want it.