Eating More Beef : Market Structure and Firm Behavior in the Pacific Basin Beefpacking Industry

New GATT/WTO regulations have enhanced the power of competitive strategies implemented by the transnational corporations which now dominate the production and distribution of packaged beef in the Pacific Basin. The political actions that have facilitated these economic changes are illustrative of a wider globalization project sponsored by the US and transnational capital. Here I explain the replacement of "national beef sectors" in Australia, New Zealand and the United States with a new industry structure focused on exports to East Asia that features key attributes of the emergent third (global) food regime (after 1995). Keyword(s): beef, Pacific rim, globalization, Australia, USA, trade