Five Nations Beef Conference moves to an alliance
CANADA - The Five Nations Beef Conference will now be referred to as the Five Nations Beef Alliance (FNBA) after members of the group, consisting of national beef producer associations from five countries, met in Australia on October 19 - 20, 2006 and decided to revise the name to better reflect the group's mission and objectives.
31 October 2006
2 minute read
The five member groups, consisting of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA), the Cattle Council of Australia, Meat and Wool New Zealand, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (United States) and the Confederacion Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (Mexico), represent over half of the world's beef exports.
"The goal of this group is to increase the overall demand for beef while eliminating non-scientific and political trade restrictions," states CCA President Hugh Lynch-Staunton. "Its key strength is that all five countries are collaborating on industry issues and initiatives, such as animal health, and we aim to be consistent in how we approach these issues. The term 'alliance' is a better reflection of what we're doing."
The Five Nations Beef Conference has been in existence for over 25 years.
Historically, it focused on trade policy and will now be extended towards expanding market access and improving market security by ensuring sound scientific based standards are adopted and all unjustified non-tariff barriers are eliminated. The group has also agreed to work together on animal health and welfare issues, ensuring they are science-based, outcome focused and do not impede trade.
"One of the CCA's strategic goals is to become increasingly active in international standard setting. We're working with other nations to adopt a science-based approach to animal health and trade and we believe the term 'alliance' and expanding the FNBA's objectives will greatly impact its ability to influence policy and put us one step further towards meeting our objectives," says Lynch-Staunton.
Canada will serve as official secretariat for the Five Nations Beef Alliance. The next meeting will be held in the United States in May 2008.
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