U.S. Readies Warnings on European Meat Tests

The United States is preparing to warn several European countries that their meat exports could be banned if they fail to maintain inspection programs up to U.S. standards, a senior U.S. Agriculture Department official said Tuesday.

The warning is the latest chapter in a simmering dispute about meat trade between Europe and the United States, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Lester Crawford, administrator of the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, said a letter would be sent to West Germany and other countries experiencing “difficulties” maintaining adequate programs to detect illegal drugs in meat.

In a speech in Lyons, France, last week, Crawford said Belgium, Britain, Ireland, Italy and West Germany have been unable to prevent the use of banned substances.

“Since the decision to ban all anabolic compounds, virtually every meat-producing European country has witnessed public reports of black market use,” Crawford said in his speech to the Toxicology Forum.

Crawford said in an interview that while the Agriculture Department was not considering imposing a ban on meat imports from Europe, U.S. law requires the department to certify every year that countries have residue regulatory programs equivalent to those in the United States.

If the agency is unable to make the certification, meat imports from the country in question are banned, he said.

“We are concerned by the breakdowns in control in Europe,” Crawford said. “This is not a threat.”

Crawford said some 14,000 animals were reportedly impounded in West Germany after the discovery of testosterone, a banned drug, in live animals last month.

“We do believe that the problem is the inevitable result of the regulatory scheme adopted in Europe, an unscientific and unenforceable ban,” Crawford said in his speech in Lyons.

The European Community has stricter curbs on drug use in animals than the United States, which relies on its meat inspection service to make sure chemical compounds do not exceed established limits.

The U.S. warning appeared to be part of a strategy designed to put pressure on the EC to lift a ban on meat treated with growth hormones. The ban is to go into effect Jan. 1.

“There is no way with the hormone ban in place that trade can continue between the United States and Europe in meat products,” Crawford said. The Reagan Administration maintains that when used properly, growth hormones pose no health risk to consumers.

Last December, the U.S. Administration published a list of EC exports, valued at $100 million a year, against which it said it would retaliate if the hormone ban were implemented.

“The U.S. remains firm on this issue,” Crawford said in his speech in France.