Our beef market is about a close to a free market as it gets. Supply and
demand set the price the last movement intervention was an executive order
by Richard Nixon to stave off congress passing price controls when a
shortage sent beef sky high.

Beef has been cheep and if it is broken up into raising a calf to 540
pounds, raising a stocker to 850 and then putting it the feed lot and then
selling it to the packing plant the feed lot has been running in the red
for a couple of years but the over all process is making money. The cause of
the feed lot running it the red is the packer is buying feeders and putting
them in the feed lot and the profit or loss in the feed lot is meaningless
to the packer it is an expense.

The BSE problem in Canada will fix US beef prices by taking 1 million
feeders off the table and a half million pounds of fat beef for as long as
it takes to get their problem fixed up.

I don't think that BSE is a threat to Canada because they like the US they
never had the amplifying method that the UK had to keep it going and they
sure don't now.

The dumping problem comes up every time prices get low with all countries.

Gordon


"Torsten Brinch" wrote in message
...
June 16

U.S. attacks Mexican Beef and Rice Protection at WTO

The Bush administration has asked the World Trade Organization to
strike down Mexico's protection beef and rice producers,

"We are working to ensure that Mexico doesn't use foreign
trade remedy laws as unfair barriers to U.S. products," said
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in a statement.

The Mexican government has previously determined that U.S. producers
have been selling their rice and beef cheaper to Mexico than they do
in the U.S., a practice called "dumping".

As a protection against US dumping, Mexico imposed anti-dumping
tariffs on U.S. beef in April 2000, and on U.S. white long grain rice
in June 2002.

Anti-dumping duties are permitted protection measures under WTO rules,
a fact USA does yet not deny.

However, the Bush administration has apparently now made its own
calculation of the damage caused by US dumping in Mexico and found it
to be smaller than claimed by Mexico. The U.S. claims to the WTO,
that the method Mexico used to reach its findings was flawed and the
imposed anti-dumping duties therefore violates WTO rules.

Under WTO rules, the U.S. and Mexico now have 60 days to attempt to
negotiate the matter between them before a dispute panel would be
formed -- iow, the Mexican government now has 60 days to cooperate
fully and unconditionally with the Bush administration to remove
the anti-dumping duties.

The combined US export market value for beef and rice was
about $0.9 billion in 2002.