Despite calls for help, USTR remains silent on sheep petition

Billings, Montana, September 5, 2024 – Today, having received no response to 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 her to determine whether her office will request that the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) conduct a global safeguard investigation for the sheep industry. The purpose of the investigation would be to determine whether the large quantity of imported lamb and mutton constitutes a substantial cause of serious injury to the U.S. sheep industry. On August 3, 2023, Protect American Lamb submitted its initial request to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in the form of a petition which claimed that lower-cost imports, primarily from Australia and New Zealand, had captured 74% of the domestic lamb and mutton market by 2022, and that these uncontrolled imports were decimating the commercial mutton industry in the United States.
The group’s petition was quickly followed by a joint bipartisan letter from Congress in October 2023, in which 14 members of Congress representing eight states respectfully urged the U.S. Trade Ambassador to give full consideration to the request of U.S. sheep producers who asked the Trade Ambassador to request that the USITC initiate the requested investigation.
Having received no response to its petition by year’s end, Protect American Lamb submitted additional information to the USTR in December 2023, including 16 formal resolutions, proclamations, and letters from county governments in seven states urging Congress and the Administration to take action to end the harm to the U.S. sheep industry caused by excessive imports.
Today’s letter included eight additional resolutions from counties in five states as well as letters of support from wool producers’ associations in Idaho and Utah. The letter warns that the decline in domestic lamb prices projected for 2025 “will likely result in an exodus of even more domestic lamb producers than the additional 12,534 sheep operations that recently left the sector between the 2017 and 2022 agricultural censuses.”
“In summary, the dire situation facing our domestic sheep industry as described in our August 2023 petition continues to worsen, and we are disappointed that our petition, which represents a significant first step in alleviating this ongoing crisis, appears to have been ignored,” the letter continues. The letter concludes: “We respectfully request that you inform us as soon as possible whether the Office of the United States Trade Representative will request the United States 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) to determine whether lamb and mutton are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to constitute a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic sheep industry.”

–R-CALF United States