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WTO protectionist report to feature swine flu bans 16 Jun 2009
The upcoming World Trade Organizations (WTO) report on protectionism, will highlight bans on pork imports after the H1N1 flu outbreak.
According to sources spoken to Reuters news service, The WTO will be putting the finishing touches to its regular trade measures report ahead of the June 23-24 ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared on Thursday that the outbreak of swine flu, officially known as influenza (A) H1N1, was a pandemic, meaning it would spread all over the world and could not be contained. It repeated that it did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions as a result. Many countries banned imports of pork from Mexico, the United States and other countries after the outbreak was detected in April.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has joined the WHO, World Organization for Animal Health and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in stating that pork is not a source of infection and is safe to eat provided it is prepared properly.
However, the forthcoming WTO report is likely to limit itself to listing the meat import restrictions and not comment on whether they are justified, for fear of prejudging any trade disputes that arise from them.
Non-WTO member Russia is one of the most prominent countries banning pork imports from affected countries, and together with Argentina will again appear as one of the countries most actively restricting imports, the sources said.
The WTO issued a first trade measures report in January, after November’s pledge by the G20 not to aggravate the economic crisis by restricting trade. A second followed in March before the G20 summit in London.
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