U.S. live bivalve exports to EU on ice

Beginning on Thursday, live or raw mollusk exports from the United States will be temporarily blocked from entering the European Union market. The rule’s impact is not expected to be wide in scope, as it will affect only a limited amount of product.

A provisional regulation allowing the trade of live bivalves expired on Wednesday, and differences regarding health-certificate standards have not yet been resolved, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Seafood Inspection Program (SIP).

In December 2009, the European Commission identified differences in shellfish monitoring standards between the United States and the EU. Its evaluation “did not identify serious risks for human health, except for the harvesting area of the Gulf of Mexico,” reads a 14 December 2009 Official Journal of the European Union report. Shellfish from the five Gulf states are already not allowed into the EU.

According to the report, the United States and the EU agreed to examine the reciprocal equivalence between U.S. and EU standards for live bivalves. Imports of mollusks, echinoderms, tunicates and marine gastropods were allowed to continue for six months.

Until the products are again allowed to enter the EU, SIP will not issue export health certificates for them. Wild scallop meats, fresh or frozen, will be allowed entry; whole scallops or scallop adductor muscles with the roe attached will not be allowed, according to SIP.

Lisa Weddig, director of regulatory and technical affairs for the National Fisheries Institute in McLean, Va., said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and EU food-safety officials have been working together on an equivalency agreement. The United States does not allow imports of live mollusks from Europe.

“It really has to do with FDA and the EU trying to reach agreement on acceptability of inspection programs,” Weddig told SeafoodSource. “The EU wants it to be a bilateral agreement, but I think the FDA sees it as two separate things.”

Weddig did not know if an agreement was imminent or if there was any timetable for one.

However, the impact of the measure is not expected to be severe: Only a limited amount of live or raw U.S. molluscan shellfish is exported to Europe. In 2009, U.S. exports of “nonspecific” live clam products to the United Kingdom totaled 711,113 pounds (322,655 kilograms).

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