U.S. Officials Call on Russia to Suspend Beef Import Rule

WASHINGTON The U.S. government isn't pleased with a new requirement that Russia has imposed on beef and pork bound for that country.

Russia is imposing a requirement that such beef be free of the feed additive ractopamine, which is used to promote leanness in cattle and pigs.

Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, told The Wall Street Journal that Russia's requirement would effectively ban imports of American products because the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't have a testing and certification program in place to identify ractopamine residues in beef or pork.

Earlier this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk called on the Russian government to suspend the new testing requirements.

"The United States is very concerned that Russia has taken these actions, which appear to be inconsistent with its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization," they said in a joint statement Dec. 8.

As reported by The New York Times, some analysts viewed Russia's decision as retaliation for U.S. legislation punishing Russian officials for human rights violations. The Senate's passage of the Magnitsky Act will freeze assets and deny the visas of Russian officials who have been linked to the death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, the Times wrote.

But Russian health officials are said to be concerned about the effects of ractopamine. "It has been found that ractopamine may develop pathologies of metabolic activity in animals," Dr. Alexey Alexeenko of the Russian Federal Veterinary Service was quoted as saying by The Voice of Russia, an international multimedia broadcasting service. "It also may have a bad influence on the heart-vascular system, on the kidneys and the liver."

Ractopamine is a veterinary drug that is used as a feed additive to promote leanness in pigs and cattle. A group of independent experts convened by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization have found that certain residue limits for ractopamine present no impact on human health.

Over the summer, a UN food standards body agreed on a set of residue limits for ractopamine: 10 micrograms per kilogram of pig or cattle muscle, 40 micrograms per kilogram in liver and 90 micrograms per kilogram of the animals' kidneys. Ractopamine is currently allowed to be used to increase lean muscle mass in cattle and pigs in about 25 countries, according to an information sheet from the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the UN food standards body.