The American Feed Industry Association congratulates and thanks Congress on the long-awaited passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The U.S. animal food manufacturing industry depends on the free-trade access it enjoys with Canada and Mexico, which has allowed exports of feed ingredients, feed and pet food to more than quadruple since the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) implementation, growing from roughly $669 million in 1993 to over $3.2 billion today.

The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) commends and congratulates the administration on the signing of a historic phase one trade agreement with China. The U.S. animal food manufacturing industry faces a number of challenges in this market, including those which have restricted any new U.S. feed additive and premix products to be exported to China since 2011 and those which restrict U.S. feed products with ruminant-origin ingredients and a number of poultry-derived ingredients. This agreement directly addresses these constraints by streamlining and facilitating a facility registration process for feed additives, premixes and compound feed, as well as lifting the poultry and ruminant ban for animal food products. AFIA looks forward to working with industry and the appropriate U.S. government agencies to facilitate implementation.

The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) applauds the passage of bipartisan legislation to fund the federal government for the remainder of the 2020 fiscal year. The legislation, expected to be signed into law by President Trump today, not only averts a midnight deadline to shut down the government, but also achieves a very important AFIA policy priority to increase funding for animal food ingredient approvals.