From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Brazil may start selling raw meat to the United States this year, stated Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply Ministry executive secretary José Amauri Dimarzio, after ending the meeting of the Brazil-United States Agricultural Consulting Committee (CCA) meeting.
According to Dimarzio, up to May the USA should approve the sanitary requirements for import of Brazilian cattle beef, after having finished quantitative risk evaluation. "The committee is going to speed up the progress of various themes related to bilateral trade, including export of raw meat," stated the secretary, together with the of the United States Agricultural Department (USDA) Foreign Agriculture Service, Kenneth Roberts.
Apart from beginning cattle beef sales, Brazil is also interested in increasing fruit export to the US market. For this purpose, the Ministry is proposing the analysis of plague risk and import requirements for pawpaw, mangos, and limes. There is also interest in opening the US market to melon, watermelon, pumpkin, fig, star fruit, pomegranate, and purple sweet potato, according to a Ministry statement.
Technicians from the Ministry and from the USDA have been meeting in Brazilian capital Brasília since Monday (15/03) to elaborate proposals of common interest involving the sanitary, zoo-sanitary, phytosanitary, technical training, and trade areas. After the meeting, Brazil and the United States have started showing their interest in harmonizing sanitary requirements of agricultural products that both countries are great suppliers of, such as orange juice.
An agreement signed between both countries forecasts product standardization. According to the document, Brazil and the United States are interested in reaching a consensus with regard to the appropriate level of Brix (natural fruit sugar) in orange juice. The theme will be discussed in October, during the Codex Alimentarus Intergovernmental Task Force on Fruit and Vegetable Juices. The Codex is connected to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Biofuel
According to Dimarzio, Brazil and the United States, the largest producers and consumers of ethanol, may also establish similar specifications to simplify the trade of this biofuel. "Japan, for example, has closed contracts with the United States for the purchase of ethanol, but if, for example, there is lack of the product, and Japan only accepts the US ethanol standards, we would have difficulties in exporting," pointed out Dimarzio. The idea is to consolidate ethanol as an international commodity, fixing a t strategy for sale of the product on other markets.
Kenneth Roberts also stated that with the creation of the Committee, Brazil and the United States should modify their commercial relations going from intimidation and worry to cooperation. "We must work on being on the same side of the negotiation table in international forums," stated Roberts.
The next CCA meeting should take place within the next year. But in six months time the technicians will summarise what has been accomplished in the mean time. The Committee is the result of an initiative by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and US president George W. Bush during a meeting in Washington in June 2003. At the occasion, Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues and US Agriculture minister Ann Veneman signed an accord creating the CCA.
