January 18, 2010
New Russian rules extend to US beef sector
US beef exports to Russia could suffer from the new Russian inspection rules, and two senators have sent a letter urging President Obama to take action on bilateral meat trade issues.
Russia's veterinary service has asked the USDA to re-inspect US beef plants exporting to Russia by February 1, and bar any plants not meeting Russian requirements from shipping meat, said Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative said.
The US and Russia have mutually agreed-upon audit requirements, in place of Russian requirements, that US beef production facilities must meet to be eligible to export to Russia, McPherson said.
If the Russian standards are put into place, that would significantly affect US beef exports, said Blanche Lincoln, chairman of the Senate agriculture committee, and Saxby Chambliss on the committee.
In the letter sent to President Obama, the senators said, “We urge you to fully engage all administration resources to address these agricultural trade issues.â€
Russia informed the US about its concerns on beef on November 20, the USTR said. The concerns have to do with issues of plant protocol on testing and how things operate at several large US beef plants.
The US meat industry is watching the situation to see whether it escalates, an industry official said, noting it was too early to tell whether beef exports would be affected.
Russia has effectively banned imports of US poultry amid concerns about a chlorine wash used by US producers. It also has banned almost all US pork in recent weeks on allegations the meat contained excessive antibiotic residues.
Last year, Russia was the 10th largest market for US beef and was worth US$95 million - a small share of total US beef exports of $3.6 billion, according to government data.
For 2009, the value of Russian imports as of November was down 60%.
The news had little effect on US cattle futures because of the small size of US beef sales to Russia, said Peter Adams, principal at PNM Trading in Chicago.
