Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 16 • 6th May 2009
Mexico, Canada Condemn Bans on Pork Exports
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Mexico and Canada have spoken out against bans on their pork exports that countries from China to Ecuador have put in place in response to the H1N1 flu virus. The pork exporters maintain that the restrictions contravene world trade rules and have no scientific basis.
“Mexico urgently requests all its trading partners to eliminate any restrictive measures established on Mexican products, which are not in accordance with the scientific information available or with their international obligations,” Mexico said in a statement to the WTO’s Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures this week.
More than a dozen countries have banned Mexican pork products since the ‘swine flu’ shut down schools, restaurants and public venues across Mexico last month. Mexican pork exports had been growing strongly before the virus hit; the country’s total value of pork exports jumped by 60 percent in the 12 months before February 2009, according to data from the US Meat Export Federation.
Over the weekend, several international organisations issued a joint statement stressing the virus is not transmitted by food. “There is currently therefore no justification in the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Code for the imposition of trade measures on the importation of pigs or their products,” said the statement, referring to guidelines set out by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The message was released jointly by the OIE, the WTO, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Health Organization.
Canada has also reacted strongly to a new ban on its pork products. The country’s agriculture minister said Monday that Ottawa “would not hesitate” to bring a WTO challenge to China’s ban on imports of Canadian pork. The Chinese ban was prompted by an announcement from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Saturday that it had identified the H1N1 virus in a swine herd in Alberta. Canada insists that its pork products are safe to eat.
“China is operating outside of sound science,” Gerry Ritz told Canadian lawmakers on Monday.
“We are looking for clarification as to why it has gone as far as it has. We will have a response to that very shortly. Should China continue on, of course there is the WTO challenge which we would not hesitate to initiate.”
Pork exports from the United States and Spain have also been hit with bans since the outbreak of the flu virus. The European Union is the world’s largest exporter of pork, followed by the US. Brazil, Canada and China are also major producers of the meat.
Additional information
Click here for the statement from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on H1N1 in an Alberta swine herd.
Click here to read Mexico’s statement to the WTO’s Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
Click here for February 2009 information on world pork exports from the US Meat Exporters Federation.
ICTSD reporting. “Mexico says pork import bans unjustified, illegal,” REUTERS, 5 May, 2009.
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