Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 5/25/09

 

United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk told red-meat industry leaders late last week his office is trying to unlock significant foreign markets for U.S. beef and pork through "enforcement and diplomacy."

The same approach that recently helped the United States gain expanded access to the European Union beef market will be applied to other desirable markets such as Russia and Japan.

"It is a USTR priority to make certain that meat products aren't frozen out of international markets due to myths without scientific justification," Kirk said.

He said USTR is "particularly" working on Russia, which has applied sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures not based on international standards to control and restrict imports of U.S. pork.

"This problem has also resulted in the arbitrary delisting of many U.S. facilities that export to Russia over the last year," Kirk said. "We have raised these concerns with our Russian counterparts and will continue to press for a resolution of these issues."

The new trade chief has had his work cut out for him, especially since the outbreak of H1N1 influenza prompted more than a dozen trading partners worldwide to impose bans on U.S. meat and poultry despite world health officials' assurances that people cannot get the flu from eating pork, let alone other proteins.

Kirk noted as much as $900 million in annual U.S. exports could potentially be affected if those bans are kept in place.

The administration is "continuing to urge our colleagues in these countries to lift these bans," he said. "They must allow import of America's high-quality and safe meat."

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.