EU Approves Live Hog Regulation, Meeting U.S. Demand Linked To HLWG

摘要

The European Union last week met another one of the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) demands that the United States has made in the context of exploring a potential free trade agreement in a High Level Working Group (HLWG). On Dec. 4, the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health approved a new regulation that will ease the way for U.S. exports of live hogs for breeding purposes to the EU market and for transit to other destinations, according to a statement issued by the panel. The committee consists of member state experts who assist the European Commission in developing regulations. The U.S. has had sporadic and limited outbreaks of vesicular stomatitis among its hog populations, a mouth disease caused by a virus. Under the new EU rule, U.S. exports need to meet a number of conditions, including testing to prove the hogs are free of that disease, before hogs can be shipped to the EU. The new rules would amend Regulation No. 206/2010 that stipulates that hoofed animals such as pigs can only be imported to the EU if they are free of vesicular stomatitis at least six months before being shipped. That determination is made on the basis of countries or regions of countries, according to a draft released by the committee. But the amendment passed by the committee changes that condition for the U.S. hog shipments by creating a new regime by which their disease status will be determined by a new testing requirement to show they are free of vesicular stomatitis. The U.S. requested that treatment instead of the regionalization approach, which led to some consternation among members states at the meeting, sources said.