China Finally Accepts American Pork

It's about time. After closing its borders to U.S. pork more than a year ago allegedly due to the H1N1 flu, China has finally decided to respect the many scientific facts of the matter – all of which boil down to the simple fact that U.S. PORK IS SAFE.

The National Pork Producers Council reports China is now accepting pork imports from the U.S. Any meat processed after May 1 is eligible for importation. The U.S. and China reached an agreement in March to reopen markets, but it took this long for China to actually begin accepting product.

In April 2009, China cut off U.S. pork imports because of the H1N1 virus – this despite all of the science pointing to the fact that the H1N1 virus is not transmitted by food and that eating pork or pork products is therefore safe. Nevertheless, for more than a year, China chose to ignore this sound science, and instead based its trade decisions on political science.

With China being one of our largest trading partners, the reopening of this market is great news for U.S. and Texas pork producers. Let’s hope in the future China and other countries will allow facts to dictate their trading practices, rather than implementing unfounded sanctions that hurt our producers who remain committed to raising and growing the safest food on the planet.