Washington - The European Union's threat to ban meat imports from the United States next year if U.S. meat hygiene controls aren't improved is simply "outrageous," a key U.S. Agriculture Department aide said Thursday.
"I hope we can work this out," said Paul Drazek, special advisor to USDA Secretary Dan Glickman on trade issues. "We believe our (meat residue monitoring) system is excellent."
Earlier, an EU spokesman in Brussels told reporters that the EU has set a six month deadline for the U.S. to strengthen its systems of checking for "residues," such as hormones and antibiotics, in meat.
"If this doesn't happen..., the recommendation would be ban fresh (U.S.) meat and poultry," the spokesman said.
The threat, which stems from a unpublished report by EU veterninary experts, appears to be another "effort to sidetrack the veterinary equivalency agreement" reached by the the United States and the EU this past spring, Drazek said.
As part of that pact, the U.S. agreed to the EU's suggestion to hold off discussions on each other's residue monitoring systems until 1998, Drazek said.
But under that timeframe, the discussions were to take place after the new veterinary pact was in place, he said.
The suggestion that residue monitoring must now be addressed before the EU begins implementing the veterinary equivalency agreement "is just outrageous," Drazek said.
He said the U.S. has concerns about the EU's residue monitoring systems as well, particulary in the dairy sector. But that has not stopped the United States from implementing its side of the pact.
Under the veterinary equivalency agreement, the EU and the US essentially agreed to accept each other's different meat safety systems as equal.
The pact called for the EU to begin implementing its side of the agreement on Oct 1, but it missed that deadline.
Then, on Nov 18, EU farm Commissioner Franz Fischler announced that the EU would further delay implementation of the veterinary equivalency agreement in response to the United State's decision four days earlier not to certify some European countries as free of certain livestock diseases.
The U.S. contends that delay was also unjustified because the EU knew the United States was updating its livestock disease status regulations for Europe and had failed to respond to U.S. requests for information on the issue.
The latest EU move, taken without consultation with the United States, makes it increasingly unclear when the EU will implement its side of the veterinary pact, Drazek said.
That pact affects about $3.0 billion in animal product trade between the EU and the United States.
The harsh tone of the EU's announcement on Thursday also was "very unfortunate," Drazek said.
"It certainly doesn't help matters," in terms of trying to reach agreement on difficult issues, he said.
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