Audio: Beef Impasse with Saudi Arabia Moving Closer to Resolution

[audio mp3="https://www.usmef.org/downloads/Lively-on-Saudi-Arabia-beef-access-6-08-15.mp3"][/audio]

It has been more than three years since U.S. beef was eligible for Saudi Arabia. The United States lost access to this promising market in May 2012 following the BSE case in California, and it remains closed today. Thad Lively, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) senior vice president for trade access, discusses this situation in more detail in the attached audio report.

Lively and Dr. Travis Arp, USMEF technical services manager, recently met with Saudi officials to examine ways in which the U.S. industry may be able to help move this issue forward. The meetings were very promising, but some clarification is still needed on U.S. feeding practices and the range of products Saudi Arabia will accept.

Lively adds that if the two governments can resolve these remaining details, the U.S. could be positioned to have all federally inspected beef plants eligible for Saudi Arabia. In the past, Saudi Arabia has operated on a plant-by-plant inspection system, but is now moving toward a system-wide approach.

The U.S. beef industry regained access to Saudi Arabia very quickly after the 2003 BSE case, and exports grew to nearly $32 million in 2011. While exports to Saudi Arabia made up only a small percentage of the worldwide U.S. total, the 2012 suspension took a significant toll on some U.S. companies that had established a solid customer base in Saudi Arabia.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: In this U.S. Meat Export Federation report, USMEF Senior Vice President for Trade Access Thad Lively talks about recent meetings with the Saudi Arabian government aimed at restoring access for this once-promising market for U.S. beef.

Thad Lively: The Saudi market has been closed since May of 2012, when we had our California BSE case. There’s been a fairly high level of frustration with the fact that three years have gone by and this market is still closed So we clearly thought it made sense to meet with the Saudi Food and Drug Administration to try to come away with our own of what if anything we can do in the industry to try to move that process along. So we had very good meetings with the Saudi FDA, as well as the folks in the embassy. We did meet with the ambassador while we were there, and the U.S. ambassador has raised it at high levels in the Saudi government, so it was encouraging to know that the issue is getting that kind of attention. Obviously there is always details, always complications that have to be worked out. But we came away with the impression that there is a deal there to be done, and we want to support USDA and USTR in getting that wrapped up.

Thad Lively: In the past, we had a list of plants approved for Saudi Arabia, but they’re moving to a world where they’re basically going to recognize us as having an equivalent system. This is obviously something we want. There’s a process they’re going to need to go through to get to that point. They’re going to come to the states, they’re going to do some audits, making sure the system works the way we describe it, and then they’ll make a decision whether to accept product from all USDA-approved facilities. So we will get away from a plant-by-plant approach, and we will move to a system-wide approach.

Joe Schuele: For more on this and other trade issues, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.