Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch report:
Pending trade deals could worsen imported food safety problem
SEATTLE — Washington State Rep.
Maralyn Chase (D-Shoreline) joined
with Washington and Oregon food pro-
ducers and consumer safety and trade
advocates July 25 to release a new re-
port documenting the connection be-
tween existing trade agreements and the
growing threat posed by unsafe food im-
ports — and how pending trade agree-
ments would further undercut Congress’
efforts to remedy the problem.
Food imports to the United States
have doubled — to nearly $65 billion
annually — since implementation of
the North American Free Trade Agree-
ment (NAFTA) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) agreements. Pro-
jections for proposed free trade agree-
ments (FTAs) with Peru, Panama,
South Korea and Colombia show an in-
crease in food imports, while the deals
would also replicate past trade pact lim-
its on safety standards the United States
can require for imported food and how
much inspection is permitted.
According to the new report issued
by Public Citizen, a public-interest
watchdog organization based in Wash-
ington, D.C., trade rules incorporated
into the proposed FTAs with Peru,
Panama, Colombia and South Korea
limit food safety standards and border
inspection. The agreements require the
United States to rely on foreign regula-
tory structures and foreign safety in-
spectors to ensure that food imports are
safe.
“This is a trade problem that is not
just about China, but rather goes to a
trade model that prioritizes increasing
the volume of traded food over safety,”
said Lori Wallach, director of Public
Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division.
Data analyzed in the report show
that many foreign regulatory systems
are simply not up to the task.
Furthermore, the pacts require that
U.S. food safety regulators treat im-
ported food the same as domestically
produced food, even though more in-
tensive inspection of imported goods is
needed to compensate for their weaker
regulatory systems.
“Passage of the pending FTAs
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PAGE 4
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
would elevate, not lessen, the threat to
the safety of the U.S. food supply,” Wal-
lach said. “The FTAs could have been
an opportunity to create a new model
for enhanced food safety in trade. In-
stead, the agreements, if implemented
as written, may well generate the next
spate of news reports about problems
with food products from these coun-
tries.”
Global Trade Watch says the vast
majority of imported foods that end up
on the dinner plates of U.S. consumers
is unexamined and untested. It noted the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) will conduct border inspections
on only 0.6 percent of imported vegeta-
bles, fruit, seafood, grains, dairy and an-
imal feed in 2007. That is down from 8
percent prior to NAFTA.
Only 11 percent of imported beef,
pork and chicken is inspected at the bor-
der by the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture (USDA).
Despite the limited inspections,
FDA has caught numerous dangerous
substances in imports from Peru, in-
cluding illegal pesticide residues on
fruits and vegetables, the parasite cryp-
tosporidium in salad vegetables and
basil, unknown and unapproved drugs
and capsules (including unapproved
shark cartilage capsules and cats claw
capsules), Listeria in avocados, and un-
safe color additives in chocolate bon-
bons and soft drinks. Similarly, the
agency has caught dangerous products
from Panama.
Wallach said FDA data makes clear
that Americans are three times more
likely to be exposed to dangerous pesti-
cide residues on imported foods than on
domestic foods.
And while the four prospective FTA
countries’ governments currently can
challenge U.S. food standards that ex-
tend beyond trade pact constraints and
limit trade using government-to-gov-
ernment WTO dispute tribunals, the
proposed FTAs would newly empower
the more than 10,000 food exporters
currently registered in Peru, Panama,
Colombia and South Korea to pursue
challenges directly against U.S. food
safety laws if they believe such laws un-
dermine their FTA-granted foreign in-
vestor rights.
Already under NAFTA, Canadian
cattle producers have used such foreign
investor private enforcement rights to
demand $235 million in compensation
from the U.S. government over the U.S.
temporary ban on Canadian beef im-
ports when several Canadian cattle
were initially found to be infected with
mad cow disease.
The pending FTAs also establish
new committees to speed up implemen-
tation of mechanisms to facilitate trade
rules, including “equivalence determi-
nations,” which require the United
States to permit imports of meat and
poultry products that do not meet U.S.
safety standards. Once so-called equiv-
alence is achieved, products to be im-
ported into a country must meet only
the standards of the exporting country
— not those of the importing country.
“It’s obvious that when it comes to
food trade rules, corporate profits are
taking priority over adequate consumer
safety,” said Rick North, project director
of the Campaign for Safe Food for the
Oregon Physicians for Social Respon-
sibility. “We need to be taking a proac-
tive approach to deal with the food
safety crisis, not passing more trade
agreements that will allow businesses to
undermine good state food safety laws.”
State Rep. Chase, who has spon-
sored bills mandating food labeling re-
quirements, said lawmakers have long
recognized that international trade
agreements contain rules “that under-
mine the democratic process in place
to regulate in the public interest.”
Chase said citizens have a right to
know that the food on their table is safe
to eat, and “it is unfathomable that we
are considering trade agreements that
allow other countries to challenge nec-
essary domestic laws that can protect
our families from dangerous foods.”
Nyssa, Ore., farmer Owen Froerer
said U.S. trade policies have run amok.
“We are told that trade agreements are
supposed to help us sell our product
overseas. Well, a lot of farmers in the
Pacific Northwest have found that just
the opposite is true.”
Froerer said that in 2005, Seneca
closed the world’s largest asparagus
cannery in Dayton, Ore., and shipped
its state-of-the-art equipment to Peru.
“A free-trade agreement with Peru
will be the nail in the coffin,” he said.
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