European Union (EU) plans to reintroduce export subsidies for pork has the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) deeply disturbed.

The plan is especially disappointing because it comes on the heels of the EU’s commitment to end export subsidies on pork and other agricultural products as part of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round negotiations.

“The EU subsidies are a direct blow to U.S. pork producers,” says NPPC President Jill Appell, an Altona, IL, pork producer. “Our profitability is increasingly dependent on our exports. The EU subsidies undermine the U.S. pork industry’s hard-earned export sales and will unfairly shift financial pain to our producers.”

U.S. pork producers and counterparts worldwide are feeling the pinch of very high feed prices and relatively low live hog prices.

The NPPC has stated many times that it will only support a Doha Round agreement provided there is complete elimination of export subsidies and major market access gains for U.S. pork in the EU and other key markets around the world.