Christmas Beef, Pork Promotion in Full Swing at Costco-Mexico Stores

USMEF is conducting a Christmas U.S. beef and pork promotion at all 32 Costco locations in 24 cities in Mexico through Dec. 27. With support from the Beef and Pork Checkoff Programs, USMEF offers daily in-store tasting demonstrations for Costco customers. USMEF demonstrators inform customers about the attributes and characteristics of U.S. beef and pork, emphasizing their superior flavor and tenderness.

“The Christmas holiday season is a time when Costco’s high-end customers are particularly inclined to shop for high-quality beef and pork cuts,” said Chad Russell, USMEF regional director for Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Central America. “The tasting demonstrations provide an excellent opportunity to attract these customers, as well as to capitalize on the higher volume of shoppers during the holidays.”

Costco customers sample U.S. beef and pork during a Christmas promotion in Mexico

Through October, Mexico was the leading destination for U.S. beef, with exports of beef plus beef variety meat totaling 247,102 metric tons (544.8 million pounds) valued at nearly $776 million. Mexico was also the leading volume market for U.S. pork, while ranking second in value to Japan. Pork plus pork variety meat exports totaled 409,628 metric tons (903.1 million pounds) valued at $606 million.

“This has been a tough year for beef exports to Mexico, due to the sluggish economy and the devalued peso,” Russell said. “But USMEF is marketing U.S. beef aggressively for the holidays and we are looking to finish the year on a strong note. Pork exports have been outstanding this year, jumping by more than 30 percent in volume. But as we approach the end of the year, we’re doing everything we can to create a strong final push for U.S. pork as well.” 

Mexico Delays New Combo Bin Inspection Procedures to March 15

SAGARPA, the agency that oversees Mexico’s agriculture, ranching, rural development, fisheries and food supply, has notified USMEF-Mexico that it has postponed implementation of the proposed new inspection procedures for meat products entering Mexico in combo bins until March 15, 2010. The implementation of the new procedures already has been postponed several times. USMEF will provide more information as the new procedures are finalized.

Mexico Reviewing Anti-Dumping Duties on Beef Imports from the U.S.

Mexico initially imposed anti-dumping (AD) duties on beef imports from the United States in April 2000.  The Mexican Ministry of Economy (Economia) confirmed these AD duties following a so-called “sunset review” on the five-year anniversary of the initial duties in April 2005.  The subsequent five-year anniversary of the 2005 duties, coming up in April 2010, will trigger another sunset review by Economia.  

The focus of the sunset review will be to determine whether lifting the AD duties is likely to lead to the continuation or recurrence of dumping or injury.  The sunset review includes several stages, starting with the submission of data and legal arguments and culminating in a hearing, and typically lasts 10-12 months.  At the conclusion of the sunset review, Economia will publish its final determination confirming or revoking the duties, or making any adjustments to the duty rates.

Since the sunset review considers the separate-but-related questions of dumping and injury, it is conducted on two parallel tracks.  One track involves an assessment of information provided by individual exporting companies and results in a determination by Economia of the appropriate duty levels for each company.  The other track addresses the question of whether beef imports from the United States are likely to cause future injury to the Mexican beef industry. 

For AD duties to be applied to imports from any U.S. company, Economia must reach a determination of dumping and injury.  Since these two questions will be considered separately, it is possible that Economia could reach a determination of dumping without also determining that the Mexican industry would continue to be injured.  In that case, all of the existing AD duties would be revoked and no new duties would be introduced. 

Because of the critical nature of this injury determination, exporting companies face a decision about whether to submit information as part of the sunset review.  If Economia determines that imports from the United States have not caused injury to the Mexican beef industry, no AD duties will be applied to any U.S. exporting company.  On the other hand, if Economia finds injury the AD duties that will be applied to individual companies will be based on Economia’s review of the information submitted by those companies.  Companies that do not submit any information during the investigation will be assigned the highest AD duties.

Companies with questions about the sunset review process are encouraged to contact Thad Lively in USMEF’s Denver headquarters at 303-623-6328.