Meat producers are just coming off a struggle to keep high grain costs at bay and the last thing they would need right now is for governments to use food safety issues as a protectionist measures, EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said at an industry conference Wednesday ( Sep 10, 2008). 

Boel, addressing World Meat Congress in South Africa praised the robust standards the EU holds on food safety and said that although it would not be possible to remove all uncertainty in agriculture, she would like an environment as predictable as possible, in terms of trade and domestic policy.

She added that it was an ongoing irritation that potential European meat exports were still shut out of markets around the world, without justification.

Some countries still used mad cow disease as a pretext for banning beef imports, in a way that was not supported by the World Organisation for Animal Health, she pointed out.

Boel said there have been worrying developments this year.

EU pork exports had been doing well until Russia, the EU's biggest export pork market, began blocking imports from various meat companies, citing antibiotic residues in their meats. This is even though standards applied in Russia were far below international norms.

Boel said the last thing the industry needs would be governments using food safety issues as a smokescreen for protectionist behaviour.

Although she conceded every country must have rules on imports, these rules need not cause problems provided that they were reasonable, transparent and consistent.