Mexican Government Ruling On Compliance With NAFTA Panel Ruling Will Benefit Only Carcass Exports...

Mexico                                                                                         

Update: Mexican Government Ruling On Compliance With NAFTA Panel Ruling Will Benefit Only Carcass Exports
But Will Eliminate 30-Day Rule

The Mexican government published a 95-page ruling today (October 21) on how it intends to comply with a report issued in March by a binational North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panel on Mexico’s antidumping case against U.S. beef.

The ruling is available in Spanish on the USMEF Web site. An unofficial machine translation from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is also online. The Current Antidumping Tariffs For Beef Web page on www.usmef.org has been modified to reflect the changes.

As we reported earlier this week, USMEF concludes the ruling will have little tangible effect on U.S. beef exports to Mexico. The ruling will:

• Eliminate duties on exports of U.S. beef carcasses (in 2003 the U.S. exported only 1,899 metric tons of beef carcasses to Mexico);
• Remove the requirement that U.S. beef can only be exported to Mexico within 30 days of slaughter;
• Allow U.S. beef companies to resume exporting ungraded beef to Mexico, although they will have to pay the duties previously assigned to them by the Mexican government;
• Recognize name changes of several U.S. companies, allowing them to export to Mexico under their new names and pay the duties previously assigned by the Mexican government instead of the $0.63 per kilogram assigned to all U.S. companies which didn’t receive specific duty rates; and
• Confirm the imposition of antidumping duties on both bone-in and boneless products.

USMEF is advising individual companies that have been assessed an antidumping duty to closely examine the official notice to determine whether or not they wish to appeal and on what grounds an appeal could be based.

The Mexican government report was in response to an 83-page decision in Mexico’s antidumping case against U.S. beef released on March 16 by a binational NAFTA panel. Mexico imposed antidumping duties on U.S. beef in April 2000 and amended its antidumping and countervailing duty laws in December 2002.

Under international trade laws, one country accuses another of “dumping” when it believes products are being imported below their cost or home-market price and the country believes its own producers are being injured by those imports.

The U.S. beef industry challenged Mexico’s antidumping measure on beef under Chapter Nineteen of NAFTA. The NAFTA case addressed whether the Mexican determination is consistent with the legal requirements of Mexico’s antidumping law.

Mexico                                                                                         

Update: Mexican Government Ruling On Compliance With NAFTA Panel Ruling Will Benefit Only Carcass Exports
But Will Eliminate 30-Day Rule

The Mexican government published a 95-page ruling today (October 21) on how it intends to comply with a report issued in March by a binational North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panel on Mexico’s antidumping case against U.S. beef.

The ruling is available in Spanish on the USMEF Web site. An unofficial machine translation from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is also online. The Current Antidumping Tariffs For Beef Web page on www.usmef.org has been modified to reflect the changes.

As we reported earlier this week, USMEF concludes the ruling will have little tangible effect on U.S. beef exports to Mexico. The ruling will:

• Eliminate duties on exports of U.S. beef carcasses (in 2003 the U.S. exported only 1,899 metric tons of beef carcasses to Mexico);
• Remove the requirement that U.S. beef can only be exported to Mexico within 30 days of slaughter;
• Allow U.S. beef companies to resume exporting ungraded beef to Mexico, although they will have to pay the duties previously assigned to them by the Mexican government;
• Recognize name changes of several U.S. companies, allowing them to export to Mexico under their new names and pay the duties previously assigned by the Mexican government instead of the $0.63 per kilogram assigned to all U.S. companies which didn’t receive specific duty rates; and
• Confirm the imposition of antidumping duties on both bone-in and boneless products.

USMEF is advising individual companies that have been assessed an antidumping duty to closely examine the official notice to determine whether or not they wish to appeal and on what grounds an appeal could be based.

The Mexican government report was in response to an 83-page decision in Mexico’s antidumping case against U.S. beef released on March 16 by a binational NAFTA panel. Mexico imposed antidumping duties on U.S. beef in April 2000 and amended its antidumping and countervailing duty laws in December 2002.

Under international trade laws, one country accuses another of “dumping” when it believes products are being imported below their cost or home-market price and the country believes its own producers are being injured by those imports.

The U.S. beef industry challenged Mexico’s antidumping measure on beef under Chapter Nineteen of NAFTA. The NAFTA case addressed whether the Mexican determination is consistent with the legal requirements of Mexico’s antidumping law.