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Published 12:45 pm Sunday, September 26, 2021
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement that the U.S. is lifting its decades-long ban on lamb imports from the United Kingdom surprised the U.S. sheep industry.
U.S. farmers have opposed reopening the U.S. market to British lamb and sheep meat since it was first proposed in 2016.
Johnson made the statement on Sept. 22, after he met with President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C., to discuss a post-Brexit trade deal.
The U.S. administration has been oddly quiet on the issue, and the American Sheep Industry Association only heard about it through the media, said Chase Adams, the association’s senior policy and information director.
“Our position has been to prioritize export opportunities and breaking down barriers for U.S. producers before we let more lamb in,” Adams said.
The U.S. market is already import-heavy with about half of the total lamb and mutton supplies coming from Australia and New Zealand, he said.
The U.S. has banned lamb imports from Britain since 1989 due to an outbreak there of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also called mad cow disease.
At the end of the Obama administration, USDA wrote a rule that would allow lamb imports from Britain and sent it to the Office of Management and Budget, which hasn’t taken action on it, he said.
The Importation of Sheep, Goats and Certain Other Ruminants Rule is also known as the Scrapie rule. Scrapie — which has nearly been eradicated in the U.S. — is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that infects sheep.
Earlier this year, members of Congress sent letters to USDA and OMB raising concerns about the rule.
In addition to concerns over allowing animals and genetic material into the U.S. that could be scrapie positive, lawmakers and the U.S. sheep industry contend lamb imports from the U.K. have an unfair trade advantage because they receive large government subsidies.
Adding fuel to the U.S. sheep industry’s opposition is the outdated economic analysis of USDA’s 2016 importation rule. Things have changed with the Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
Since Brexit, 100,000 metric tons of British lamb that traditionally was sold to the EU each year are now in limbo, Adams said.
The U.K. has large-scale lamb and sheep production, and its trade markets are upended, he said.
“The potential is certainly there for them to be a major exporter” to the U.S., he said.
In addition, press reports indicate the U.K. intends to keep the same level of government support sheep producers were provided under the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, he said.
“They are not on a level playing field with U.S. producers,” he said.
Those subsidies are hard to decipher, but they’re estimated at $25 to $95 per head and account for 20% to 33% of U.K. sheep producers’ gross income, he said.
“We don’t have anything comparable to that,” he said, adding that assistance to U.S. sheep producers is disaster-oriented.
The U.K.’s government support payments alter the cost of production and result in deflated product prices, according to the American Sheep Industry Association.
The previous economic analysis of allowing imports needs to be reviewed, he said.
“We have significant concerns of the impact on our industry and producers,” he said.