US expresses concern over trade barriers
The report identified several major cross-cutting SPS barriers which affect multiple markets, including export certification requirements, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and avian influenza (AI). It also outlined restrictions imposed by individual markets, with markets such as China and Russia revealed to have the most extensive restrictions on meat products and livestock.
Acting US trade representative Demetrios Maranti said: “This report was created to respond to the concerns of US farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and workers who confront sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) trade barriers as they seek to export high-quality American food and agricultural products globally.
“SPS measures are rules and procedures that governments use to ensure that foods and beverages are safe to consume and to protect animals and plants from pests and diseases. Many SPS measures are fully justified, but too often governments cloak discriminatory and protectionist trade measures in the guise of ensuring human, animal or plant safety.
“These SPS barriers not only harm US farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, workers, and their families, they also deprive consumers around the world of access to high-quality American food and agricultural goods.”
China and Russia
The report stated that China continues to ban pork containing any residue of the growth-promoting feed additive ractopamine, despite the establishment of a Codex standard, enforcing this ban by barring imports from US facilities that have shipped pork to China containing trace amounts of ractopamine below the Codex Minimum Residue Level (MRL).
“The US strongly disagrees with China’s assertions that there are serious concerns about the safety of ractopamine. China has not responded to repeated US Government requests for risk assessments that support such concerns,” it said.
It added that restrictions on live cattle, beef and beef products imposed by China in 2003, following the detection of BSE in the US, continued despite the OIE recognising that US BSE‐related surveillance and mitigation measures were “effective and appropriate”. Although China announced a limited market opening for US deboned beef from animals under 30 months of age at the end of June 2006, strict conditions for entry mean the market effectively “remains closed to US beef and beef products”, the report said.
Other “unwarranted” restrictions identified in the report included a zero tolerance limit for salmonella, listeria, and other pathogens in imported raw meat and poultry and a requirement for US processed meat producers to register with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) before exporting to China.
Russia was also criticised for its zero tolerance standard on residues of ractopamine in pork, with a ban on all US meat products imposed in February 2013. “The US has requested Russia to suspend these measures and adopt the Codex standards for ractopamine. The US will continue to work with Russia to allow imports of these products to resume,” stated the report.
It added that while US exporters can export boneless and bone‐in beef to Russia from cattle under the age of 30 months, “current BSE attestations in Russia’s sanitary certificate for prepared meat effectively preclude any US cooked beef from qualifying to be imported into Russia”.
Russia also maintains a ban on imports of ground beef from cattle of any age and a ban on sale of chicken using chlorine as a Pathogen Reduction Treatment (PRT), which essentially means a ban on all US poultry, the report said.
