For the Week Ending July 13, 2018

For the Week Ending July 13, 2018

NPPC CALLS FOR LEVEL PLAYING FIELD AS FDA MAKES REGULATORY LAND GRAB

NPPC this week called for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assert its proper oversight over laboratory-produced cultured protein and gene editing in livestock production. The request comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week held a public hearing to address regulatory oversight of cultured products that are engineered in a laboratory to look, smell and taste like real meat. NPPC is urging the Trump administration to establish a level playing field by establishing regulatory authority over laboratory-produced cultured protein products with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, where they will be required to comply with the same regulatory standards, including continuous inspection, process controls, antemortem and postmortem inspection of source animals and other requirements, as conventionally produced red meat and poultry products. In addition, NPPC is asking the Trump administration to move regulatory oversight of gene editing in animals from the FDA to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. APHIS, which already regulates gene editing in plants, can ensure a proper, risk-based regulatory review under the Animal Health Protection Act. FDA oversight will treat any gene edited animal as a living animal drug – and every farm raising them as a drug manufacturing facility – undermining U.S. agricultural competitiveness relative to other countries with more progressive gene editing regulatory policies.

NPPC PARTICIPATES IN USDA MEETING ON TRADE OPPORTUNITIES

Members of NPPC’s trade team, Maria Zieba, director of international affairs, and Courtney Knupp, director of international trade policy, sanitary and technical issues, this week participated in meetings with U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service officials stationed in key export markets. Zieba and Knupp discussed U.S. pork market access opportunities. Maintaining and expanding export market opportunities for U.S. pork remains NPPC’s priority.

EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES RATIFY FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH JAPAN

The Council of the European Union last Friday completed procedures necessary to ratify the EU-Japan free trade agreement. All 28-member states granted approval for the Economic Partnership Agreement. The European Parliament hopes to finalize the deal with Japan by December 2019. Signing of the agreement by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, which was expected Wednesday, was delayed until July 17 after severe flooding in many parts of the country. With an EU-Japan trade pact in place, U.S. pork producers face lost market share in Japan. NPPC continues to urge the Trump administration to initiate bilateral negotiations with Japan, one of the world’s largest pork-consuming nations.

WHAT’S AHEAD

HEARING SET TO DISCUSS EFFECTS OF TARIFFS ON AGRICULTURE

The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade next Wednesday will host a hearing examining the effects of tariffs on U.S. agriculture and rural communities. The hearing is set for 2 p.m. in the Longworth House Office Building.