After receiving no word regarding their request made over a year ago, Protect American Lamb, a project of the R-CALF USA Sheep Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai asking for a determination regarding whether her office will request the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) to conduct a Global Safeguard Investigation for the sheep industry. The purpose of the investigation would be to determine if the large quantity of imported lamb and mutton are a substantial cause of serious injury to the U.S. sheep industry.
On August 3, 2023, Protect American Lamb made its initial request to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in the form of a petition that claimed lower cost imports, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, had captured 74% of the domestic lamb and mutton market in 2022, and that such unrestrained imports were decimating the commercial sheep industry in the United States.
The group’s petition was soon followed by a joint, bipartisan congressional letter in October 2023 in which 14 members of Congress representing eight states respectfully urged the U.S. Trade Ambassador to give full consideration of the request by American sheep producers who have asked the Trade Ambassador to request that the USITC initiate the requested investigation.
Having received no word on its petition by year-end, in December 2023 Protect American Lamb submitted to the USTR supplemental information that included 16 official resolutions, proclamations, and letters from county governments in seven states urging Congress and the Administration to take action to halt the injury to the U.S. sheep industry caused by excessive imports.
Today’s letter included an additional eight county resolutions from five states along with letters of support from wool growers associations of Idaho and Utah. The letter cautions that lower domestic lamb prices being forecasted for 2025 “will certainly result in the exodus of even more domestic lamb producers than the 12,534 additional sheep operations that had recently exited the industry between the 2017 and 2022 Agriculture Censuses.”
“In sum, the dire condition of our domestic sheep industry described to you in our August 2023 petition continues to worsen and we are disappointed that our petition, which represents a first meaningful step in mitigating this ongoing crisis, appears to have been ignored,” continued the letter.
The letter concludes: “We respectfully request that you inform us as quickly as possible as to whether the Office of the United States Trade Representative will request the U.S. International Trade Commission to conduct a global safeguard (escape clause) and market disruption investigation under the Trade Act of 1974 (section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974), for the purpose of determining if lamb and mutton are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic sheep industry.”
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