There are many arguments that would favour trade in meat over trade in live animals. We appreciate the ability to trade, in our industry, live cattle to the United States, again for competition reasons. But from a strategic perspective, and based on economic argument alone, trade in meat is the direction we need to focus on.
Trade in meat is less vulnerable than the trade in live cattle. From trade policy, from the ability of countries to restrict trade, trade in meat is less vulnerable.
Also, we have the ability to diversify that trade much more than we have the ability to diversify the trade in live cattle. So we don't apologize for our ability to trade live cattle, and our focus on trading meat is absolutely vital to the long-term health, prosperity, and decreased risk profiles within our industry.
Any time you decrease risk through diversification and reduce independence on a vulnerable product, you increase overall returns to an industry. It's this that creates optimism. It's this that moves us to an area of stability and eventual growth and prosperity.
So economic arguments alone at a strategic level will lead us toward trade in meat.