US pork industry baffled by bans in China, Russia

[Robbien]

Source: AP

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Continued bans on U.S. pork imports by China, Russia and more than a dozen other counties have baffled government and industry officials, leading some to speculate that the issue is more about market share than health concerns.


. . .

Before the latest import ban, China already refused to buy any U.S. pork from hogs given the drug ractopamine, designed to produce a leaner meat. Warner said the drug has been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and been OK'd by 26 other countries.

. . .

Russia also has held to an earlier policy of requiring personal inspections of U.S. packing plants and storage facilities. Through that process, Russia has banned imports with little explanation from 33 U.S. pork plants, representing up to 50 percent of the export capacity to Russia, Warner said

"In the case of Russia, they'd like to become self-sufficient in pork and chicken at some point, and so they're using this as an excuse to protect their own industry," Meyer, the livestock economist, said.

Russian officials said the ban on imports of raw pork from some U.S. states was based solely on health concerns. "Russia cannot meet the demand in its own market with pork produced domestically, so the accusation of protectionism sounds strange," he said. "There can be no protection of the domestic producers in this case."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jaqgTUbfdYP6NwLzseTylh0YNJ8gD98JPKO82

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Perhaps if the USFDA wasn't such a toady to agricultural big business other countries would trust it a bit more.

[skooooo]

1. It's called ignorance. nt

[Romulox]

6. Protecting ones own markets = ignorance? Nonsense. nt

[skooooo]

10. Swine flu.

My impression is that these boycotts happened after the swine-flu outbreak. If that's the reason, than I stick to my assertion.

[Romulox]

13. Pretense. nt

[sendero]

2. Guess what..

.... while America blathers about "free trade", the rest of the world protects their markets and their industries.

[Tempest]

5. America talks free trade, but practices protectionism

The timber industry is a good example.

So are the agricultural and dairy industries.

[sendero]

17. Not nearly as much..

... as our "trading partners", specifically China, do.

[T Wolf]

3. Just maybe some other nations are sick (literally) and tired of the US exporting our poison

to kill their people.

Even if that is not their motive, I support their actions.

[Romulox]

7. Er, unintentional irony alert? One of the countries in question is CHINA. nt

[ohio2007]

9. How much steel have the Chinese dumped in your town ?Don't act so happy about US steelworkers nt

[Old Hob]

14. what are you talking about?

[Dr.Phool]

4. We could retaliate by banning poisonous products from China.

That would be all of their exports.

Except their money.

[ohio2007]

8. Just goes to show . Nobody does Pork like the US. and the world hates it

Canada is also a big producer if anybody looked at certain product labels

[Zynx]

11. China? That's rich.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Really, after all the poisonous crap that has come from China

including poisoned dog food and goodness knows what else...

At least in Japan, they're still selling American pork.

[Quantess]

15. So then the FDA needs to start banning melamine contaminated foods from China.

For a start.

[hollowdweller]

16. Gotta be about protectionisim.

Now I think US farms use too many drugs and the way hogs are raised in the US is inhumane. However I have seen a few pics from Russian farms that sort of agricultural exchange people have taken and I wouldn't feed my dog anything from the ones I've seen.