VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMO #3735/01 3590611
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 240611Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC PRIORITY 5418
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1341
INFO RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 4698
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5250

UNCLAS MOSCOW 003735 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FAS FOR OCRA/KUYPERS; OSTA/HAMILTON, BEAN 
PASS FSIS/HARRIES, DUTROW 
PASS APHIS MITCHELL 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS, 
STATE PASS USTR FOR MURPHY,FIELD,CHATTIN,HAFNER, 
KLEIN 
BRUSSELS PASS APHIS/FERNANDEZ 
VIENNA PASS APHIS/TANAKA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD ECON WTO RS
SUBJECT: AGMIN DEMANDS ADDITIONAL INSPECTIONS AS 
A CONDITION FOR RELISTING PORK AND POULTRY PLANTS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
1.(SBU) SUMMARY: The Russian Federal Veterinary 
and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS) 
responded to the U.S. request for the 
justification for the recent delisting of 19 pork 
and 19 poultry plants via official letter dated 
December 19, 2008 (transmitted on December 22, 
2008).  The letter included 32 pages detailing 
the deficiencies for each plant.  However, the 
letter fell short of the U.S. request for the 
specific reasons for delisting each plant and how the 
plants were in violation of the acts of 
inspection or the export certificate.  The letter 
also stipulates that these 38 plants may only be 
relisted based on joint audits of the plants and 
visits to farms.  This demand is not consistent 
with our 2006 bilateral agreement on plant 
inspections which gives USDA the authority to 
relist plants. 
 
¶2. Begin Text. 
 Moscow, December 19, 2008 
# F?-?B-2/12948 
 
TO: Deputy Administrator 
      Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) 
      USDA 
      Dr. Ronald Jones 
 
      Dear Dr. Jones, 
 
The Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary 
Surveillance Service shows regard for the USDA 
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and 
communicates the following. 
 
Fulfilling the agreements reached at negotiations 
held December 17-18, 2008 in Moscow, we are 
providing you with the information on 
inconsistencies detected in the course of joint 
audits of the US pork (19 plants) and poultry (19 
plants) manufacturing and storage facilities 
conducted by VPSS and FSIS specialists in 2008. 
 
At the negotiations, VPSS pointed out to FSIS at 
the failure to implement liabilities that the US 
side had accepted to comply with the Russian 
veterinary and sanitary requirements and 
regulations when supplying products regulated by 
the federal veterinary surveillance agency to the 
Russian Federation. 
 
In accordance with the agreement reached in 2006, 
and as requested by the US side, VPSS gave FSIS 
the right to certify the US plants on its own 
account for whether the plants met the Russian 
veterinary and sanitary requirements and 
regulations in full, which was followed by VPSS 
including those plants into the list of exporters 
to the Russian Federation. In the performance of 
this work, FSIS confined itself to submitting 
declaratory statements to VPSS that were not 
confirmed by any documents regarding reviews 
conducted at the US plants to verify the 
compliance with the assurances. 
 
The following was detected during 2007-2008 
random inspections of meat and poultry processing 
plants certified by FSIS: absence of FSIS plant 
certification reports (acts); plants did not have 
the Russian veterinary and sanitary requirements; 
there were no documents  to serve as the basis 
for issuing veterinary certificates (documents to 
confirm disease-free status of the locality and 
the farm supplying slaughter animals and poultry, 
and also lab test results for products intended 
for the Russian Federation tested in accordance 
 
with SanPiN specifications). 
 
In spite of urgent requests from VPSS 
representatives to grant them an opportunity to 
visit farms that supply slaughter hogs and 
poultry with intent to carry out full assessment 
of the system of veterinary control effective in 
the US for the entire livestock production system 
starting from a farm, such opportunity was not 
provided by the US side to the Russian 
inspectors. 
 
In the meantime, violations of the Russian 
veterinary legislations in shipments of livestock 
products from the USA to Russia continue. 
 
VPSS territorial directorates detect a 
considerable number of violations in 2008 as 
compared with 2007 during veterinary border 
monitoring of livestock shipments arriving from 
the USA. 
 
Monitoring of various types of meat and meat 
products imported from the USA into the Russian 
Federation constantly discover residues of 
antibiotics, coccidiostatics, toxic elements, as 
well as salmonella and e.coli group bacteria 
contamination. In this connection, VPSS had to 
impose temporary restrictions on meat shipments 
to Russia from 25 US plants, and also an 
intensive monitoring was initiated over shipments 
arriving to the Russian Federation from 7 US 
plants as a result of single lab tests. 
 
The above-mentioned information has been reported 
to FSIS in a timely manner and on more than one 
occasion, however no measures to improve the 
situation have been taken to this day. At 
negotiations on December 17-18, 2008, the US 
delegation confined themselves to declarations 
stating that the current US national food safety 
system was highly efficient. There was no 
information provided concerning the intentions of 
the US side to improve the existing situation. 
As for the request of the US side to lift the ban 
on livestock product shipments from the USA to 
the Russian Federation from 19 pork plants and 19 
poultry plants, we confirm that the issue of 
whether these plants can be relisted in the list 
of the US plants eligible to export their 
products to the Russian Federation may be 
considered only in accordance with any findings 
of the plants? joint audit and visits paid to 
farms that supply slaughter animals, which VPSS 
is ready to conduct in February of 2009. 
 
In view of the above, VPSS has to note one more 
time that there are systemic violations in 
activities of the US federal veterinary service 
to monitor meat exports to the Russian 
Federation, with the result that assurances 
declared by FSIS in veterinary certificates are 
not fulfilled. 
 
We ask you to urgently submit to VPSS the 2007- 
2008 FSIS plant certification reports (acts) for 
the plants to be included by VPSS to the list of 
US plants eligible to export their products to 
the Russian Federation. We will appreciate the 
timely information on reasons why the US plants 
that were delisted twice from the list of US 
exporters eligible to export their products to 
the Russian Federation fail to comply with the 
Russian requirements, and are again relisted by 
FSIS. 
 
Doctor Jones, accept my assurance in the deepest 
respect. 
 
Attachment: 32 pages. 
 
Deputy Head 
   N.A. Vlasov