News & Events | Cross-Border Cooperation Builds Partnerships and Trust

Cross-Border Cooperation Builds Partnerships and Trust

While it cannot have a direct role in the political, policy making or regulatory processes of Mexico or any other country, USMEF plays a key role in ensuring the continuity of U.S. beef and pork exports by building relationships with key staff in Mexican government and non-governmental agencies and keeping them informed about U.S. practices and procedures to facilitate the import of U.S. red meat.

As part of this policy, USMEF organized the October visit of a technical team made up of officials from Mexico’s economy ministry, members of the commission in charge of measuring the regulatory impact of regulations (COFEMER), and representatives of the Mexican Retailers Association (ANTAD), the Association of Federally Inspected Establishments of Mexico (ANETIF) and the Mexican Meat Science Association (AMEXITEC). USMEF-Mexico technical staff briefed the team on the need to revise current import regulatory procedures such as 100-percent combo sampling and other nontechnical barriers to establish a harmonized import system of equivalent biological and chemical standards, testing/sampling protocols and import inspection procedures.

The team poses for a photo in front of a Mexican Point of Inspection and Verification for imported meat

“Although Mexico’s economy ministry maintains a strong open-market position, particularly towards trade between NAFTA signatories,” said USMEF-Mexico’s Dr. Nelson Huerta, who led the regulator team assisted by Ms. Alex Valdez, “domestic livestock producing groups, particularly the Mexican pork producers associations and sympathetic policymakers, exert a powerful influence upon government agencies to shift to a more protectionist footing by, among other tactics, questioning the U.S. and Mexican inspection and verification systems and using the media to challenge the safety and quality of U.S. red meat, particularly pork. This visit by representatives of government, academia and industry demonstrates their openness to see for themselves the facts behind the U.S. production systems and processes and food-safety and quality controls.”

Another USMEF aim was to improve the team’s technical knowledge — especially the ministry officials and COFEMER members — and to overcome any misperceptions they might have about U.S. pork exports and border verification processes. They saw for themselves the production processes, animal welfare practices and public health safeguards used in the U.S. to obtain high quality, sustainable, safe and nutritious red meat products.

At Texas Tech University Dr. Mindy Brashears, Dr. Mark Miller and other faculty members shared up-to-date scientific information on integrated systems of meat quality and safety control from farm to table. Dr. Brashears disclosed in advance of its publication the results of the meat pathogen baseline study conducted in different retail outlets in major cities in Mexico in 2009. These preliminary results support the view that Mexico’s current regulation imposing zero tolerance for salmonella in raw meat lacks scientific validity and hold out hope that the current revision of the regulatory framework in the new Law of Animal Health will be extended to imported fresh meat items.

With these objectives in mind, Huerta took the team on a tour of the Seaboard Farms plant in Guymon, Okla., where the visitors witnessed pork slaughter, packing, processing and labeling for export to Mexico and saw the HACCP system in action firsthand.

“To visit a plant with the capacity and the technological level of the Seaboard Farms plant was really impressive,” said Dr. Pilar Castañeda,UNAM professor and treasurer of AMEXITEC. “Meeting personnel of different agencies of USDA and learning firsthand their responsibilities was very informative. I had participated previously in technical trips with veterinarian colleagues. This time the interaction with professionals of other disciplines allowed me to learn their perspectives and standpoints. It was a different and enriching experience.”

In Washington, D.C., the team visited with American Meat Institute and National Meat Association representatives, who gave them a comprehensive vision of the challenges and issues faced by the red meat industry on both sides of the border. A visit to the inspection points and customs at the Texas border allowed them to see clearly the process of inspection, certification and verification of U.S. imported meat products.

“Thanks for allowing us to know more about U.S. pork processing, to talk directly with USDA authorities (APHIS and FSIS), AMI and NMA and to learn about the scientific advancements in meat science addressed by faculty members of Texas Tech University,” said Blas Garcia, an official of the economy ministry. “The organization of the trip was very good.”

The team visit achieved its goal of educating its target audience about U.S. pork production, safety and quality assurance systems. It allowed USMEF-Mexico to demonstrate the quality of U.S. meat products imported to Mexico and the mechanisms — sampling protocols, verification procedures — in place to assure safety and compliance with bilateral agreements and regulations.

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The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn and soybean checkoff programs.

For more information, contact Jim Herlihy at jherlihy@usmef.org.

USMEF complies with all equal opportunity, non-discrimination and affirmative action measures applicable to it by contract, government rule or regulation or as otherwise provided by law.