November 22, 2007

South Africa requests EU to delist some meat exports

South Africa asked EU to delist pork, poultry, and some meat products from its list of South African exports.

South African officials said that this move was not prompted by EU safety concerns.

The EU said last week it would decide on December whether to remove certain meat products from the list of commodities that South Africa exports to EU due to safety worries.

Tsotso Sehoole, Agriculture department spokesman, said on Wednesday they requested to delist some commodities because these items were not exported to the EU for more than a year now. South Africa did not want to subject these commodities to EU monitoring tests anymore.

Sehoole explained that South Africa did not export any pork, poultry, lamb, honey or milk to the EU this year pending the EU decision on whether or not to delist the commodities.

The exports of these commodities made up less than 5 percent of South Africa's exports to the EU last year, according to Sehoole.

Philip Tod, The European Commission's health spokesman, said last week the EU recommended for South Africa to be delisted for the commodities, after EU officials visited the country in June and released report stating on "South Africa's failure to conduct adequate tests and controls on animal medicines."