Chuck Grassley: “I join the minority leader today in introducing two important bills regarding agricultural trade. The first is a bill…”

“I join the minority leader today in introducing two important bills regarding agricultural trade. The first is a bill that requires the U.S. Trade Representative to determine whether the European Union has violated its trade agreements with the United States by failing to certify U.S. beef and pork processing plants for export to the European Union. The failure to certify our plants has cost the pork industry alone as much as $60 million annually. The problem arises under the E.U.'s so-called Third Country Meat Directive. This directive, which has been in place since 1985, calls for E.U. inspection and certification of U.S. meat plants as a condition for accepting exports from those plants. Simply put, if a plant has not been certified, it cannot export to the E.U. member nations. Since the mid-1980's the E.U. has used this directive to prohibit over 400 U.S. facilities from exporting beef and pork to the E.U. Many bilateral discussions have taken place between the E.U. and the United States on this issue since 1985. But no satisfactory resolution has ever been reached.”