CRIMES WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES - gpvec

6. Enforcement of Federal Law in Foreign Plants
Foreign countries desiring to export meat products to the United States must demonstrate
that their meat inspection systems are “equivalent” to the U.S. domestic inspection
system. 166 Meat products exported from other countries must meet all the standards of
the U.S. Federal Meat Inspection Act and its regulations, including that the animals be
humanely handled and slaughtered.
The USDA-FSIS Office of International Affairs evaluates foreign food regulatory systems
through document reviews, on-site audits and port-of-entry re-inspection of products. 167
The equivalency determination process, which typically takes three years to complete, is
initiated when the foreign food inspection service completes a set of five questionnaires
dealing with slaughtering and processing, sanitation, residue control, animal disease and
enforcement. Of the more than 200 questions—many of them multi-part questions—
currently contained in the FSIS foreign country questionnaires, none address the issues of
humane handling and humane slaughter. 168
After a country is judged to have an inspection system equivalent to the United States,
a proposed rule is published in the Federal Register and any comments submitted
in response to the posting are to be considered prior to the issuance of a final rule
designating the country as eligible to export to the United States. The USDA-FSIS
does not conduct food inspection in foreign countries but instead relies on the foreign
food inspection service to carry out daily inspections of approved facilities. Foreign
establishments desiring to export to the United States must apply to their national
inspection authority, which certifies to FSIS a list of all establishments meeting U.S.
import requirements. 169
As of February 2008, the following countries were eligible to export meat products to
the United States: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Honduras, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Northern
Ireland, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and
Uruguay. At that time, the number of certified slaughter establishments per country
ranged from none to more than 300. Australia and Canada had the largest number of
certified establishments. 170
166 For a discussion of “equivalence,” see USDA-FSIS, Office of International Affairs, Process for evaluating the
equivalence of foreign meat and poultry food regulatory systems, Oct 2003. (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/
IPS/EQ/EQProcess.pdf)
167 USDA-FSIS, Office of International Affairs, Equivalence process. (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations_&_
policies/equivalence_process/index.asp)
168 See USDA-FSIS, Office of International Affairs, Example of equivalence audit cover letter and
questionnaire. (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/Congress/Import_Equivalence/Appendix_2.pdf)
169 USDA-FSIS, Office of International Affairs, Process for evaluating the equivalence of foreign meat and
poultry food regulatory systems, October 2003. (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/IPS/EQ/EQProcess.pdf)
170 As of February 2008, China and Israel were certified for poultry, but not meat export; only Canada and the
Netherlands were certified for egg export. At that time, Honduras had no certified meat establishments, but was
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