No beef quotas for third U.S. quarter

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 5

No beef quotas for third U.S. quarter

NZPA staff correspondent Washington The United States Department of Agriculture has come out with its third quarter estimate for beef, imports, and avoided triggering quotas by a hair’s breadth. The department makes an estimate each quarter, of the tonnage it expects exporters to send to the United States during the year. If the estimate is above the trigger level set at the start of the year the Government can impose quotas,

based on each country’s historical level of exports, or, as happened in the final quarter of last year, ask exporting countries to agree to “voluntary” restraints. This year the quota is 558,382 tonnes. The department in spite of increased shipments from New Zealand and Canada and much higher levels than expected from Australia, has estimated that the year’s total would come to 555,206 tonnes. The estimate will be welcome news to the New Zealand meat industry. Shipments to the United

States are 42 per cent higher than last year, though some of this is due to stocks shipped last year but carried over to be sold this year as a result of last year’s restraint agreement. The danger of a fourth quarter estimate above the trigger level remains strong, according to meat industry sources. Australian supplies were expected to be well down this year after extensive culling last year — a result of the prolonged drought — but cattle thought to have died have since been found on high ground, and Australia estimated that it will send 278,000 tonnes to the United States this year, a figure close to its historical level of about 300,000 tonnes.