Documentation issue delays return of American pork exports to China

Differences over what kind of documentation is needed to accompany shipments of US pork have held up the process of restarting trade between China and the US.

China's insistence that US pork be certified as not coming from swine that were infected with swine flu, or H1N1 influenza, is not practical, USDA Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

China banned all US pork imports last year after humans, for the first time, began contracting a type of swine flu. US scientists were quick to conclude last year that there was no way for consumers to get sick from eating pork, but China kept the ban in place.

"We are trying to make sure that we do not get into a situation where we start listing specific diseases on export certificates," he said. Rather it should be enough for the Chinese to know that the pork is safe, he said.

In late October, Chinese government officials promised Vilsack, who was visiting China for a meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade that the ban would be lifted, but this has not happened yet.

According to a USDA analysis, China was "the US pork industry's fastest-growing market" in 2008, a year in which the US shipped US$560 million worth of pork to China.