The International Beef Alliance held its annual conference in Canada this year from 16-21 September 2018, bringing together the cattle producer organizations from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United States. Paraguay, the 7th member of the alliance was unable to attend this year.
B+LNZ’s CEO Sam McIvor, Eastern North Island Director George Tatham, and Young Leader George Macmillan attended the event.
George Tatham says the IBA reconfirming its commitment to trade reform and liberalisation was one of the key focuses of the conference.
“This year the IBA members agreed to work together and with their respective governments to support the work of international organisations such as Codex Alimentarius and the WTO - recognizing the importance of the rules-based trading system”.
“There was also recognition of the possible trade disruptions as a result of Brexit with the IBA encouraging both the UK and EU to undertake open and transparent consultations and to honour their legal obligations”.
The organisations shared information about their domestic ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), welcoming Mexico’s early ratification. It was agreed that those IBA members who are a party to the CPTPP would work together to encourage other CPTPP members to complete their domestic processes as soon as possible.
The IBA also agreed to support an approach on NTBs that recognises their significant distortionary and costly impact on trade; discussed the possible impacts of alternative proteins led by a presentation by the Young Leaders focusing on the regulatory issues and product perception; and reaffirmed the importance of environmental stewardship that helps drive profitability and integrity of beef production.
The International Beef Alliance represents the beef producing organisations of seven of the largest beef producers and exporters in the world representing around 60 percent of global trade in beef.
The statement can be found at: http://internationalbeefalliance.com/news.html
