Trade negotiations have been a main focus of the Trump administration and we caught up with Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg to learn how the trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom will impact beef producers.
Under Secretary Lindberg said, “Yeah, so one of the very first, if not, I think it was actually the first deal the President signed, was the U.S.-UK Economic Prosperity Agreement. And I was just in Nebraska here a little over a week ago, talking with folks at Greater Omaha Packing and other parts of the Nebraska farm economy. They were the first company we’re aware of that ended up shipping Midwest beef into the United Kingdom. It was a big win. And this is not just a material win in terms of actually shipping product.”
“This is an entire ideological change. The U.K. for decades has really been a market that our beef producers have wanted access to and never had the opportunity to see that materialize. Today, it is available to them. The President had a 13-fold increase in exactly the quota amount that we’re able to ship there. But it represents more than just the quota amount. It represents a shift in the dynamics. And so we’re excited to see that. We’re excited to hear that product is, in fact, moving. We’re trying to get more dollars back per head of beef to our ranchers here in the United States so that they can continue to grow their herds and do all that they can do to meet this demand that’s out there for beef, which is incredible at this moment in time,” said Lindberg.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.