US threat to ban British pork
22 December 1998
US threat to ban British pork
BRITISH pork could be the next target of a bizarre hit-list of products that the USA is threatening to ban in retaliation against the European Unions banana import policy.
The US administration has already turned up the heat in the escalating banana dispute by imposing crippling duties on a range of imports.
It claims that the EU has cost US farmers hundreds of millions of dollars by failing to open markets to banana imports from US multinationals.
In retaliation, the USA will impose prohibitive, 100% tariffs on 16 imported products from Europe, beginning next February.
Washington may now add imports of pork and olive oil to the hit-list, which already includes biscuits, candles, chandeliers, knitted cashmere and handbags.
Britain last year exported only 3500 tonnes of pigmeat to the USA, according to figures from the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC).
But if the US ban goes ahead, it would mean one less outlet at a time when British farmers are struggling to compete in an oversupplied European market.
“The USA is not one of Britains major export markets,” said an MLC spokesman.
“The one thing we have to bear in mind is that theres a fair bit of pigmeat in Europe at the moment, so we may want to look at the USA as a potential market.”
Out of the 15 EU countries, only Denmark and the Netherlands – both major pigmeat producers – would remain exempt from the ban.
Denmark and the Netherlands were the only two countries to vote against the European Commissions revised banana import regime.