| | |  Business News | December 2008 
Mexico Begins to Lift Ban on US Meat Plants
 Noel Randewich & Roberta Rampton - Reuters
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| | A stallholder cuts a slice from a leg of ham in San Sebastian, November 21 2007. (Vincent West/Reuters) | |
Mexico City/Washington - Mexico took steps toward resuming imports of U.S. meat on Monday from a group of plants that had been sanctioned for sanitary issues, officials in both countries said.
Mexico suspended shipments from 30 U.S. beef, pork, lamb and poultry plants last Tuesday over sanitary conditions involving packaging, labeling and transportation in what U.S. industry officials said was an unusually large delisting of their plants.
But Mexico cleared 20 of the plants for export on Monday, spokespersons for the U.S. Agriculture Department and the Mexican Embassy said.
U.S. officials were ready to present corrective action plans to Mexico for five additional plants, said Laura Reiser, spokeswoman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
"We're going through the same process with the last third as the first two-thirds," Reiser said.
Mexico is the top export market by volume for U.S. beef, veal and turkey, the second largest for pork and the third largest for chicken, according to U.S. government statistics.
On Friday, U.S. analysts speculated the bans were sparked by Mexico's opposition to a recently enacted meat labeling law. But Mexico and the USDA both denied the retaliation charge.
"Both countries are working and have been working in close coordination on this," said Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexico embassy in Washington.
"Some stories that we've read tried to portray it as a trade war, when it's not the case," said Alday, who noted Mexico has approved 1,600 U.S. meat plants for export.
U.S. cattle and hog prices slumped on the news on Friday, but markets rebounded as the suspensions were expected to be short-lived.
Many of the banned plants are owned by the largest U.S. meat companies, including Cargill Inc, Tyson Foods Inc, JBS, Seaboard and Smithfield Foods.
The timing of the issue during the Christmas season complicated its resolution, said Janet Riley, a spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute.
"While it is in no way common to have this many plants all delisted at once, it has happened before," Riley said.
Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods told Reuters they continued to export meat to Mexico from other plants that were not affected by the measures.
"This is the first time, I think, that Tyson or the industry have had this many plants affected at one time," said Archie Schaffer, senior vice president for external relations for Tyson Foods, which had six pork plants delisted by Mexico.
There were no details available from U.S. or Mexican officials about what violations led to the plant delistings.
"These were not food safety violations," the USDA's Reiser said. Rather, the "port of entry" issues dealt more with standards and administrative issues, she said.
The issues arose during inspection of shipments crossing into Mexico, said Alday of the Mexican Embassy.
Companies found in violation were warned about the issues, and Mexican officials also raised them during meetings with U.S. counterparts earlier this month, Alday said.
The plants were delisted on December 23 because Mexican officials had not received plans for how the plants would correct the issues, he said.
(Additional reporting by Bob Burgdorfer in Chicago; Editing by Russell Blinch and David Gregorio) |
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