FEED Business Worldwide - July 2012

 

Turning the tables: Thailand uses food safety concerns to justify banning US pork 

 

by F.E. OLIMPO

 

 

Western countries have long used food safety concerns to ban Asian meat imports. This time around, the tables have been turned: Thailand is using food safety concerns to block US pork from its domestic market

 

During the last two years, American pork producers have been trying to enter the Thai market, which they believe could bring in US$30 million to US$35 million in export income for the US swine industry. This effort intensified after last year, when Thai pork prices skyrocketed after a nationwide outbreak of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) killed nearly 30% of Thailand's pig population.

 

Lest it be accused of not abiding by WTO canons, Thailand actually allows US pork and pork products to enter the country. In January 2010, it lifted a ban on US pork which it had imposed a year earlier over H1N1 (swine flu) concerns.

 

However, due to what they call "burdensome requirements", American producers have not resumed shipments of unprocessed pork products and offals to Thailand. The regulations include allowing Thai officials to inspect each producer's facility. Describing it as a "bogus sanitary barrier," the American National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says the requirement grants Thailand the power to issue import permits that it could use in an "arbitrary manner … to protect its domestic production."

 

The United States replied by asking Thailand to agree on "a protocol adopting a systems-based approach that analyzes the entire US food safety system relating to pork production, rather than relying on individual plant inspections for all exporting facilities."

 

The reality is that throughout the world, most agribusiness trade barriers are put up in the name of "food safety." No other country knows this better than Thailand itself. Australia banned Thai shrimp imports in the guise of food safety, when it was actually protecting shrimp farmers in the state of Queensland. Deep in their hearts, Thais believe that Europe's eight-year-old ban on frozen Thai chicken, scheduled to be lifted this July, was a trade wall to protect EU poultry farmers and not a genuine health concern.

 

Despite having one of the safest and most sanitary agribusiness supply chains in the world, Thailand has often been at the receiving end of food safety-related trade ruses but in this latest incident, the tables have been turned: One cannot help but be amused at Thailand's use of food safety as an excuse to bar US pork. The US specifically protests Thailand's ban on pork with traces of ractopamine, a feed additive American veterinary experts consider safe but which is banned in the EU, China, Thailand and 150 other countries. On the other hand, US pork raised with ractopamine is exported to over 25 countries, none of whom have had any complaints.

 

Thailand argues that under its own laws, use of ractopamine in animal feed is prohibited. This prohibition, it points out, is strictly enforced among Thai meat producers so it doesn't see any reason to demand any less from American hog farmers.

 

Besides, it adds that the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an international organisation promoting food safety, has yet to determine the safety of ractopamine as an animal feed additive. So, unless Codex Alimentarius makes a final determination, which Thailand could use to amend its own laws, there's no way the ractopamine ban could subject to negotiation.