U.S. suspends French meats

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Posted: 0218 GMT (10:18 AM HKT)
美国暂停进口法国肉产品
2004，2,25，星期二。

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has suspended the import of all French meat and poultry products after a team of inspectors found problems in several French processing plants, a U.S. official says.
华盛顿消息－－一美国官员宣布：美国决定暂停从法国进口一切肉类及禽类产品，检查人员有法国的几个加工场发现存在问题。

(Foie gras is prepared for export from a French processing plant. )

Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, told CNN Tuesday the agency sent a letter to French officials informing them of the ban.
美国农业部食品安全及检查署发主人史蒂文·科恩，于周二宣称，他们已将该决定正式通知法国官方。

The agency said it would suspend the import of meats such as ham, pork products, pate, foie gras and others because of sanitation problems in some plants recently toured by U.S. inspectors.
并声称，由于在最近的美国检查人员的所进行的检查中，发现在一些加工场中存在卫生问题，美国将停止进口诸如火腿、肉制品等，但是鲜肉不在所禁范围内。
Fresh meat is not included in the ban.

The suspension on French meat imports is effective Tuesday, although Cohen said products shipped before February 24 would be accepted into the country. The United States imported more than 976,000 pounds (442,713 kilograms) of meat products from France in 2003, he said.
科恩还声称，禁运决定从周二起生效，在2月24日前装运的产品被允许进入美国境内。在2003年，美国从法国进口的肉制品超过976，000磅(442，713公斤)。

The move came on the same day the European Union announced it would ban the import of live chickens and eggs from the United States following the discovery of a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu in Texas.

The EU said the ban would apply to all live bird and egg imports from the United States for one month until March 23 and follows a similar EU ban on imports of Thai poultry.

The United States is a major poultry exporter to EU states. A quarter of annual EU egg imports are from the U.S., about 13,000 tons of eggs worth 20 million euros ($25.17 million) in trade.

The USDA is working with its French counterparts to address the meat products problem, which Cohen said is the result of France's failure to maintain an inspection system equivalent to that of the United States.

U.S. officials who informed their French counterparts of the suspension said it was because the plants no longer corresponded with U.S. safety regulations for meat products, the press officer for France's agriculture minister told CNN in a phone interview from Paris.

The spokesman said the suspension deals with meat products such as foie gras and sausage, and said fresh meat was not affected.

He said French officials do not agree with the U.S. team's conclusions, which were made after a U.S. team visited 11 businesses between January 15 and February 5, but he refused further comment.

Cohen said of the 11 plants inspected, three were completely "de-listed" and two others received notice of American intent to take them off the list of approved facilities.

He said until the French have a plan in place to address the issues raised by the inspection team and undergo additional inspections, the meat products will not be imported into the United States.