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17/11/2010
Restrictions Eased on Meat Imports from Brazilian StateWorld TradeINTERACTIVE™
Restrictions Eased on Meat Imports from Brazilian State
The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a final rule that, effective Dec. 1, will ease certain restrictions on the importation of live swine, swine semen, pork meat, pork products, live ruminants, ruminant semen, ruminant meat and ruminant products from the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Specifically, APHIS is adding Santa Catarina to the list of regions recognized as free of foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, swine vesicular disease, classical swine fever and African swine fever as well as the list of regions subject to certain import restrictions on meat and meat products because of their proximity to or trading relationships with rinderpest- or FMD-affected countries.
APHIS proposed this action in April as one of three interim steps the U.S. agreed to take to avoid retaliatory sanctions by Brazil following World Trade Organization rulings against U.S. cotton subsidy programs. These sanctions included more than $560 million in higher tariffs on U.S. exports as well as possible countermeasures on intellectual property rights. While some comments on the proposed rule objected to linking this regulatory action to the WTO case, APHIS said the litigation did not affect the methodology or conclusions in its evaluation of the disease status of Santa Catarina.
APHIS notes that the importation of meat and other products from ruminants or swine from Santa Catarina will continue to be subject to certain restrictions because of Santa Catarina’s proximity to or trading relationships with FMD-affected countries and regions. For example, APHIS requires that only inspected, authorized establishments be used to prepare products and prohibits using slaughterhouses that receive meat or animals from FMD- or rinderpest-affected areas. Furthermore, current APHIS regulations require certification that ruminants and swine have been kept in a region entirely free of FMD, CSF, SVD and ASF for 60 days prior to export. They also require a minimum quarantine of 30 days from the date of arrival at the port of entry for most imported ruminants and 15 days for all imported swine.
Finally, APHIS states that this final rule is not expected to result in imports of beef or other ruminant meat of any appreciable quantity. While several comments pointed out that Santa Catarina has more cattle operations than any single U.S. state and that Brazil is the largest beef exporter in the world, APHIS responded that Santa Catarina contains less than 2% of Brazil’s cattle, most of which are dairy animals. In addition, Brazil’s sheep and goat populations are concentrated in parts of the country other than Santa Catarina and their products are nearly entirely destined for the domestic market.
