The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a trade agreement with Russia that ends a January 2010 ban on chlorine-treated poultry from the United States. In exchange for lifting the ban, USDA has pledged to post on its website information about “which disinfectants/pathogen reductions treatments are known to be approved by Russia for use on processing poultry and on food generally.” U.S. officials will also provide (i) “information . . . on the solutions that companies use on poultry shipped to Russia,” and (ii) “an updated list of poultry processing facilities authorized to ship poultry to Russia.” The accord came after 25 senators reportedly urged President Barack Obama (D) to take up the issue with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. “I am pleased that after several months of negotiations, we have finally reached a breakthrough which will allow for U.S. poultry exports to resume to this important market,” stated U.S.…
Tag Archives import/export
An umbrella organization for animal welfare groups in the European Union has reportedly signed a declaration creating the Transatlantic Animal Welfare Council (TAWC), a cooperative agreement with U.S. activists that seeks to enforce humane handling standards in international trade. According to Eurogroup for Animals, the new forum seeks to “optimize resources by sharing knowledge, expertise and experience” among TAWC signatories, which include the Animal Welfare Institute, Compassion in World Farming, the Humane Society of the United States, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Royal Society for the Preservation of Animals. To this end, TAWC will convene “a plenary session two times per year and set up a number of expert working groups to focus on specific topics of mutual interest, such as animal testing, sustainable agriculture as well as specific bilateral and multilateral trade issues. ” TAWC apparently aims to build upon the efforts of the Transatlantic Economic…
At the request of the Senate Committee on Finance, the U.S. International Trade Commission has initiated an investigation into “China’s Agricultural Trade: Competitive Conditions and Effects on U.S. Exports.” The commission will conduct a public hearing on the matter June 22, 2010, and the deadline for requests to appear is May 25. Prehearing briefs and statements must be filed no later than June 3. A commission report will be submitted to the Senate committee on March 1, 2011. According to the commission notice of investigation and hearing, the report will cover the conditions of competition in China’s agricultural market and trade from 2005 to 2009 or the latest year for which data are available. Among other matters, the report will include information about trends in production, consumption and trade in China’s agricultural market; government agricultural market programs and pricing and marketing regimes; China’s participation in global agricultural export markets; tariffs and…
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on May 6, 2010, to consider food safety reports prepared by the Government and Accountability Office (GAO) and the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Both the GAO report and testimony from an Inspector General administrator focused on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agency weaknesses in ensuring that imported foods are safe and domestic food facilities are subject to meaningful inspection in terms of frequency and breadth. According to Subcommittee Chair Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the hearing marked the 12th conducted since January 2007 to consider food contamination issues. He concluded his remarks by stating, “We are fortunate that today’s hearing was prompted by the HHS and GAO reports rather than another widespread food contamination outbreak like we saw with spinach in 2007, peppers in 2008 and peanut butter…
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have apparently agreed to share safety information on imported goods, including foods and pharmaceuticals. The two agencies on April 26, 2010, signed a memorandum of understanding that grants CPSC “the capability to conduct import safety risk assessments and perform targeting work using CBP’s Automated Commercial System.” The new partnership aims to identify potentially dangerous imports before they enter the country, according to a concurrent CBP press release. The alliance is the latest formed under the auspices of CBP’s Import Safety Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC). Established after President Barack Obama’s (D) Food Safety Working Group urged widespread reform, CTAC is an interagency effort that draws on shared resources, analysis and expertise “to protect the American public from harm caused by unsafe imported products.” The new facility is staffed with 30 personnel from CBP, CPSC and…
A committee of European Union (EU) member state officials has reportedly decided to cease imposing U.S. rice import restrictions which had been in place since 2006 when genetically modified (GM) rice was found in conventional rice supplies. U.S. rice could be sold in the EU over the past four years only if certified as free from GM rice. Rice farmers in the United States have cited the EU restrictions in litigation against the company that manufactured the GM rice; the farmers have prevailed in several lawsuits, winning both compensatory and punitive damages for the precipitous drop in prices paid for their crops after the EU and Japan essentially closed their borders to all U.S. rice. According to a news source, the 2009 rice crop has been found to be free of LL Rice 601, and the EU has been assured that U.S. rice exporters will continue to test rice exported to…
According to a news source, a putative class action has been filed against retailer Loblaw and meat processor Siena Foods Ltd. following a listeriosis outbreak that sickened a number of Canadian consumers and led to a nationwide recall of salami and prosciutto products. While one press outlet has indicated that the bacterium which sickened two individuals has been matched genetically to the Siena meat, another reports that none of the recent five listeriosis-related deaths has been linked to Siena products. The lawsuit apparently alleges that Siena was aware of its products’ “potential toxicity” but failed to inform consumers, deciding instead to advise its distributors. Siena Foods is apparently closing its facility the weekend of March 20-21, 2010, to sanitize the plant. Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is reportedly trying to hire new meat inspectors to increase its inspections of some 80 meat-processing plants. The United States requires inspections every…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued two requests for public comments regarding proposed collections of information under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. One notice involves the registration of domestic and foreign food facilities. FDA is calling on owners, operators or agents “in charge of domestic or foreign facilities that manufacture/process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States,” to provide comments on (i) whether FDA’s proposed information collection is necessary for the agency’s performance and the information has practical utility, (ii) the accuracy of the agency’s information collection burden estimates, (iii) ways of improving the “quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected,” and (iv) ways to minimize collection burdens. The second notice concerns the collection of information pertaining to prior notice of imported food. Under the Act, FDA must “receive prior notice for…
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg offered her views on how the agency will move forward on food safety and labeling issues during a “Food Summit” sponsored by The Atlantic magazine at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., March 4, 2010. Hamburg stated that she plans to focus on two critical aspects of food policy: safety and how to make it easier for consumers to make more nutritious choices and reduce the risk of disease. She pointed to three converging factors that affect food safety. First, she stated that both consumers and the industry support reform measures and want a system focused on prevention, where everyone in the supply chain is held accountable and imports are required to meet U.S. standards. Second, she noted that current U.S. food safety legislation (H.R. 2749—passed by the House in July 2009 and expected to be taken up by the Senate this spring) would mandate a shift from reaction…
According to a news source, a putative class action has been filed against E&J Gallo Winery alleging that it falsely labeled and sold its Red Bicyclette® wine as Pinot Noir when the wine was “illegally cut with cheaper Syrah and Merlot grapes.” The action, reportedly filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, follows news that wine makers in France were sentenced for selling the cheaper wine to the company as pinot noir. Additional details about the French scam appear in issue 338 of this Update. Meanwhile, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has reportedly been investigating the matter with French authorities and may also take action against U.S. wine importers. The bureau was quoted as saying, “TTB is waiting for an official translation of the court documents and has begun investigations to determine the appropriate course of action to take regarding the American importers of these mislabeled…
