December 18, 2006

China allows time-period for US to investigate future violations

China has agreed to give a 45-day reprieve to US authorities to investigate meat and poultry shipment violations before taking punitive action against US exporters, the USDA said last week.

Richard Raymond, from the USDA said the agreement is aimed at preventing US companies from getting barred from trade.

China agreed to give the US 45 days to do an evaluation of how a problem surfaced so that authorities can work with the US plant involved and ensure that it would not happen again, Raymond said.

China's swift "delisting" of US pork and poultry companies has been a vexing  problem, Raymond said. China delisted 13 US poultry plants last winter and two US pork plants, the poultry plants have since resumed exports to China, he said.

The US exported 51,205 tonnes of pork and 389,870 tonnes of poultry to China the first ten months of this year.

The agreement ensures that problems, such as finding bone fragments in shipments, would not be a problem warranting the delisting of the US plant involved, as in Hong Kong and South Korea.