Mexico Begins Lifting U.S. Meat Ban
By Pork news staff
| Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Mexico has begun lifting restrictions on importing U.S. meat. Last week they had banned imports from 30 U.S. meat plants. A Mexican official told Reuters that bans on imports from the plants will be removed.
Mexico suspended shipments due to sanitary conditions involving packaging, labeling and transportation in what U.S. industry officials said was an unusually large delisting of their plants.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service reported that corrective action had been taken at 21 of the plants. Five other plants will probably be recertified after the USDA sends plans to Mexico for resuming imports, according to the statement from Laura Reiser, a spokeswoman from FSIS.
The Mexican government was still awaiting word from FSIS on what remedies were being made at the remaining plants, the official said.
Mexico is the largest export market by volume for U.S. beef, veal and turkey, the second largest for pork and the third largest for chicken, according to U.S. government statistics.
It was speculated that the bans were due to Mexico's opposition to the country of origin labeling law. Mexico and the USDA both denied the retaliation charge.
