It has been just over one year since China reopened to U.S. beef after an absence of nearly 14 years. The U.S. beef industry has made progress in establishing a customer base in China, but is about to face a steep challenge – an additional 25 percent retaliatory tariff, which will raise China’s total import duty rate on U.S. beef to 37 percent. Joel Haggard, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) senior vice president for the Asia Pacific, explains that the threat of these duties has already had an effect on customer interest in U.S. beef, and he expects in the volume entering China to decline once the higher duty rate takes effect – which is expected to happen July 6. Read more...