The decision came during the 34th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, of which 136 member countries were in attendance. Codex is the international food safety science standard-setting organization founded by the World Trade Organization's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards Agreement.
“We are extremely disappointed in the inability of Codex to reach consensus based on the volumes of scientific evidence presented to support international maximum residue limits on ractopamine,' said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's Chief Agricultural Negotiator Isi Siddiqui and Department of Agriculture Acting Undersecretary Michael Scuse, in a joint statement Wednesday. 'Political considerations should not cloud the decisions of an internationally recognized food safety authority. Today’s inaction is a setback for Codex, science and fair trade.'
They added: 'The safety of ractopamine has been confirmed three times by Codex's own panel of international scientists. The United States and a broad array of Codex members in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands supported the adoption of the standard, but other members blocked advancement due to non-science questions outside the mandate of Codex. This is the fourth year that some member countries allowed non-scientific factors to cloud decision-making.'
The White House officials said the European Union, China, Thailand and Taiwan 'impose unjustified trade barriers on U.S. trade in beef and pork due to the use of ractopamine.'
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of ractopamine in swine and cattle in 1999 and it is approved in 25 other countries.
