WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/USA/167/Add.1
6 August 1999
(99-3350)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
NOTIFICATION OF EMERGENCY MEASURE
Addendum
The following communication by the United States is being circulated.
On 20 July 1999, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released the following
information concerning follow-up actions taken on the emergency measure notified as
G/SPS/N/USA/167:
Meat and poultry products produced in European Union (EU) member States have been on hold at US
ports-of-entry since 3 June 1999, because feed contaminated with dioxin and PCBs may have been
fed to animals in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.  The hold was necessary because of concerns
that open trading among EU member States may have spread contamination beyond its originalboundaries.
Based on information that FSIS has received from the countries, as well as FSIS testing of product
from France and the Netherlands, we have released product from France, the Netherlands, and Spain
for distribution to consumers.  In addition, on 2 July, FSIS announced release of product from
Finland, Ireland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom;  on 18 June, FSIS announced it was releasing
product from Denmark because of documentation that product is safe;  and on 11 June released Parmaham from Italy and Serrano ham from Spain because of the long curing times for these products.
Future shipments of product from France and the Netherlands will continue to be held and tested, until
the US is assured of continuous acceptable levels of PDBs.  Product from the other EU countries
remains on hold until information and test results gi ve FSIS assurance that they are safe for American
consumers.
The following information was released on 28 July 1999:FSIS is releasing from US port-of-entry hold all pork products exported from Germany.  Germany has
provided an attestation that German establishments exclusively use pork form Denmark in product for
the United States.  No further pork product holds or testing for PCB's will be required.  All future
shipments must, however, be accompanied by a country of origin certification for the pork.
Future information on follow-up actions can be found on the FSIS Website at http://www.fsis.gov
under News Releases.
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