President Bush announced an agreement with the Russian Federation that will benefit pork producers' bottom lines by increasing the sale of pork products from the U.S. to Russia.

“The Russian Federation has taken numerous actions during the past few years that have negatively impacted U.S. pork producers and others in U.S. agriculture,” observes Jon Caspers, president of the National Pork Producers Council. “President Bush committed to resolve these problems and he delivered.

“Our producers were really harmed by Russia's restrictions on U.S. poultry exports. Russia is the U.S. poultry industry's number one export market, and the Russian restrictions backed up the poultry supply in the U.S. and brought down the prices of U.S. pork and live hogs,” he remarks. Russian restrictions on U.S. pork imports compounded the problem.

The administration's action sets a country-specific quota that will help shield U.S pork from dumped and subsidized pork exports from Brazil and the European Union to Russia.