Source: Andre Sulluchuco, MEATINGPLACE, 7/21/14


Buenos Aires-based news source Telam.com reports that the American Task Force Argentina (ATFA) and the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) recently held a panel titled “Argentina’s efforts to undermine animal health protocols” at the House of Representatives. The panel was convened in the wake of news of Argentina’s failure to pay its external debt since 2001.

USCA Vice President Chuck Kiker labeled Argentina as “poor” in its transparency of animal sanitation issues, the news source said.

He also warned of “economic losses” due to Argentine meat imports with foot-and-mouth disease, which he considered “catastrophic for both the industry and the national economy."

Mario Ravettino, president of the Argentine Consortium of Meat Exporters, said in an interview with Minutouno.com that Argentina has as a result filed a judicial process before the World Trade Organization because the U.S. has not opened its market to Argentine meat.

He alleged that many U.S.-based industries have taken protectionist measures to prohibit the entry of the nation's meat. “I must first say that those entities cannot speak in this respect,” he said. “Only the OIE can do so and Argentina fulfills all their requirements."

The consortium has submitted formal requests to export meat to the U.S., a process followed to more than its 50 export markets.

“Uruguay has the same sanitation status as Argentina does, and we need to ask why Uruguay can sell meat to the U.S. but [we] cannot,” Ravettino said.

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