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MEXICO NIXES US POULTRY IMPORTS

MEXICO CITY - Mexico has closed its borders to all poultry imports from the US following the announcement that a Texas chicken flock was diagnosed with an extremely infectious and fatal form of bird flu.

Mexico's agriculture ministry said in a statement the ban, effective immediately, affects live poultry as well as processed products.

The full ban on US chicken imports comes on the heels of escalating Mexican precautions in recent weeks as more states discovered less contagious forms of bird flu.

Last week Mexico, which says it has the highest sanitary controls and norms on poultry production in the world, banned poultry product imports from Canada's western province of British Columbia after avian flu was detected on a chicken farm there.

Since 2002, Mexico has had its borders closed to poultry imports from California, North Carolina, Maine, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Texas, and Connecticut. Delaware and New Jersey were added in January. 

Avian influenza is classified into two categories - low pathogenic and high pathogenic - based on the severity of the illness to the infected bird, according to animal health scientists.
 
The bird flu discovered in the Texas chicken flock was the stronger of two scientific categories of avian bird flu, but it is not as deadly as the strain devastating Asian poultry, according to animal health experts.

It was the first US outbreak in 20 years of a serious form of the virus that can kill large numbers of poultry.

AG GROUP SUPPORTS CAFTA

ST. LOUIS - Following a "careful review of the details" of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Corn Board today voted to support the deal, citing its favorable provisions for corn growers.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua signed the agreement December 17, while Costa Rica signed the agreement in mid-February. The five countries already import more than $1 billion of US agriculture products annually, and that figure is likely to rise under the provisions of CAFTA.

Under the agreement, yellow corn exports to Central American countries will receive duty-free access for current tariff rate quota (TRQ) levels with an increase of 5% over the course of a 15-year transition period.

The current TRQ is approximately 1 million metric tons. US exports to Guatemala
will receive duty-free access over a 10-year period and tariffs on exports to Costa Rica will drop to zero immediately.

The co-products market is also expected to benefit from the deal, as export duties for corn gluten feed and dried distillers grains will go to zero.

NCGA represents more than 33,000 members, 25 affiliated state corn grower organizations and hundreds of thousands of growers who contribute to state check-off programs.

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