Agriculture dept: New order on meat products drafted

After the United States and Canada expressed its opposition to the current measure on frozen meat products, the Department of Agriculture drafted a new directive that it hopes will address their concerns.   “In observance of impartiality and fair trade, the Philippines adopted inputs from US meat processors. We hope that this will settle the issue on frozen meat,” National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) executive director Jane Bacayo said in an interview on Tuesday.   He explained that the draft when approved will replace the department’s Administrative Order No. 22, series of 2010.   "In the draft AO, we have allowed frozen meat to be placed in coolers provided that it will observe the product temperature which we have set," Bacayo noted.   The current order states that frozen meat may only be placed in freezers with the “temperature not higher than 10 degrees Celsius.” The proposed measure provides that frozen meat products be placed in coolers at temperatures not higher than 5 degrees Celsius.   “Frozen meats and meat products shall be displayed and sold in meat stalls in sealed primary packaging,” AO 22 also states.   However, the current AO is silent on or has no specific provisions on freshly slaughtered local meat. Bacayo did not elaborate on whether locally produced meat should also be put into coolers.   Last month, US Deputy Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala had bilateral talks regarding the country’s restrictive importation on frozen meat product.   The Philippines is the 12th largest market for the US agriculture exports having $1.6 billion in 2010 sales.   Meat products are among the top five US exports to the Philippines, and account for 7 percent of America’s major agriculture exports. — RRD/ELR, GMA News