More than 12 countries banned US pork after H1N1
26/05/2009
In an address to the board of the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) on May 22, President Obama’s trade representative, Ron Kirk, made it clear that he believed exports must be a cornerstone of the nation’s economic recovery. For this to happen, however, he emphasised that trading partners must honour their commitments and grant fair and consistent market access to US products.
“Our goal is pretty simple, and that’s to continue to give you greater access to more international markets for high-quality beef and pork,” he said. “We believe that one of the best ways that we can do that is by stronger enforcement of existing rules.”
Mr Kirk was especially critical of trade suspensions recently imposed on US pork and, in some cases, beef because of H1N1 influenza.
"More than a dozen countries imposed trade restrictions on US agricultural products without scientific justification as a result of that outbreak,” he said. “For us, this is a big deal. As much as $900 million in annual US exports could potentially be in jeopardy.”
The most problematic markets in this regard are China and Russia, Mr Kirk said. He also noted that Russia had had already been systematically limiting market access for US pork through what he termed “arbitrary delisting” of US processing plants.
"We have raised these concerns with our Russian counterparts and will continue to press for resolution of these issues," he said. He added that it would be a profound mistake to simply assume these interruptions in trade will only be temporary, a lesson he said livestock producers have learned all too well in recent years.
“When the BSE scare hit us in 2003, everybody said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. In six months it will all be over and we’ll be back to normal.’ Well as you all know, six years later here we still are with a lot of our beef frozen out of important markets,” he said.
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