Over-the-top demands limit red meat trade

As tariffs fall, there has been an increasing tendency to impose barriers to trade via technical means and research indicates those hurdles are costing Australia’s red meat supply chain around $1.3 billion annually.

Not only are the barriers compromising market access but they are significantly increasing compliance costs, exporters say.

Meat and Livestock Australia’s General Manager International Markets Michael Finucan, based in Beijing, said unfettered access for chilled beef to China would mean Australian exporters could supply a greater range of product that suit the higher-end of the market and build a premium brand in the market.

Barriers not related to quotas or tariffs generally occur where an importing country doesn’t recognise Australia’s integrity systems or applies additional hurdles to Australian product entering a market.

Examples include restrictions to a market for certain products, restrictions to a category of products - for example limited chilled access to China - and setting shelf life requirements below recognised standards, such as in the case of chilled product to the Middle East.

Processors say non-tariff trade barriers are now the single largest challenge to expanding export markets.

Industry peak bodies are pouring resources into addressing it.

An Industry Market Access Advisory Committee, with representatives from the Australian Meat Processor Corporation and Australian Meat Industry Committee, has been set up.

AMPC says there are more than 130 non-tariff trade barriers in 40 key export markets.

To overcome the challenges of countries placing technical market access requirements on imported goods, scientific solutions need to be continuously developed and effectively communicated, it says.

The work of the committee will largely involve development of technical submissions which pull together the science that in many cases already exists and the commissioning of new research into specific areas where intractable issues remain.

AMIC’s Director National Processing Steve Martyn, in an opinion piece in the organisation’s weekly newsletter, said the immediate advantage from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal was access to markets like Mexico but in reality it would mean little unless technical barriers to trade in Mexico were also eliminated.

Australia previously had a 9000 tonne mutton carcase business in Mexico, even at 12 per cent import duty, he said.

That had been stopped by a Mexican decision that the flat stacking of carcases in a sea freight container - the way the trade is conducted successfully in most other parts of the world - was no longer acceptable and instead, carcases must be hung from rails.

“That is totally uneconomic for international trade and of no food safety merit,” he said.

Chief executive officer of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company in NSW Simon Stahl listed tripe to China as another example.

He said for many years Australia has had in place protocols for exporting tripe with a number of other countries but had not yet been able to establish food safety protocols with China based on the Asian giant’s insistence of further scientific protocols.

Mr Finucan said Free Trade Agreements allowed Australia to continue to supply the current range of products with less duty but Australia wanted to expand the range and tap into more opportunities.

He said market access was a key pillar of the work MLA does in international markets.

“We work closely with AMPC to prioritise issues and develop strategies to address non-tariff barriers,” he said.

“Each market monitors technical barriers and delivers targeted activities to address these. “Many of the issues are negotiated at a government-to-government level so we provide unified industry positions to the issues.”

China and the Middle East are currently the main focus.

“In China, getting more plants registered, opening up chilled access and reducing offal access restrictions are the priority,” Mr Finucan said.

“In the Middle East, we are trying to increase the shelf life of Australian chilled product.”