Environmental Regulation and Implications
for U.S. Pork Exports
Mark Metcalfe
University of California - Berkeley
May 4, 2000
Presented at the
2000 Annual Meeting of the
American Agricultural Economics Association
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 207 Giannini Hall, University of Cal-
ifornia, Berkeley, CA 94720, phone: (510) 642-0262, fax: (510) 643-8911, email: met-
calfe@are.berkeley.edu.
Environmental Regulation and Implications
for U.S. Pork Exports
Abstract
Environmental concerns linked to hog production are growing in the United States and
the European Union and therefore new regulations controlling animal manure management
are being imposed to address these concerns. This study determines that potential increases
in U.S. environmental regulation would have minimal effects on the relative competitive-
ness of U.S. pork exports, while much more stringent EU regulation has the potential to
significantly impact EU competitiveness and contribute to continued increases in U.S. pork
export quantities.
Introduction
Hog production in the United States has increased 12% in the last 10 years, and since
1995, the United States has taken on a new role as a net exporter of pork to the world.
Annual exports for 1999 and beyond are estimated to exceed 600,000 metric tons making
the United States the largest pork exporter, in terms of quantity, and also establishing U.S
pork as a serious competitive threat to European pork exporters. This increase in U.S.
pork export quantity is due to recent changes in the structure of the U.S. industry and
also to recent sanitary restrictions imposed on pork exports from Taiwan (Foot and Mouth
Disease) and the Netherlands (Classical Swine Fever) that have opened foreign markets to
U.S. pork exports (USDA-ERS, 1996; Shaw, Shaffer, Premakumar, and Hayes, 1997; Hayes,
1997; USDA-FAS, 1998; Hayes, 1998).
The competitiveness of U.S. pork had traditionally been handicapped by problems as-
sociated with heterogeneous quality and small-scale production and despite a history of