Kendrick Meek: “my amendment helps to protect United States consumers from unsafe foreign meat and poultry. What it does, it ensures…”

“my amendment helps to protect United States consumers from unsafe foreign meat and poultry. What it does, it ensures fairness to protect our meat and our poultry products from unfair competition and it directs the United States Department of Agriculture to influence our current food safety laws. What this amendment does is necessarily ensures that USDA will follow and enforce its laws. What it does is it will cut off funds for them for permitting the import of meat and poultry from any foreign country unless USDA determines that the inspection system of that foreign country is equivalent and actually provides a level of safety equivalent to what we require of the meat and poultry people in this country. We want to be sure that that equivalency is established. If it is not, this amendment would certainly cut off funds to that foreign country.”