| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2008 
Mexico Snubs US Salmonella Accusation
 Prensa Latina
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| | Jalapeno peppers sit for sale in a market in Mexico City, Friday, July 25, 2008. (AP/Gregory Bull) | | |
Mexico City - Mexican authorities once again rejected accusations by US health authorities about a salmonella outbreak in that country, allegedly caused by the Mexican chilly.
We cannot accept that Mexico gets the blame for that, affirmed the director of the National Health, Harmlessness, and Agro-food Quality Service, Enrique Sanchez, and added the situation created affects national producers.
“We are very upset,” the official stressed, and noted not a single case of salmonella has been reported by the Mexican Health Secretariat.
“We are really interested in knowing the source of infection, but we are sure Mexico did not cause it,” Sanchez stated, adding that the contamination should have emerged in the internal US distribution process.
That is a dirty campaign to protect US farmers, the National Front of Legislators from the Rural Sector denounced this week.
New US Barriers to Mexican Agriculture
Prensa Latina
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Mexico City - Several Mexican sectors have predicted a new wave of US barriers to local agriculture, claiming phytosanitary pretexts like those they used in the cases of tomato and jalapeño pepper.
From now on, US measures may affect avocado and onion, according to experts from the National Agricultural Council, who explained that such practices take place when demand for Mexican products increases on the US market.
The recent claim that jalapeño pepper has caused a salmonella outbreak in the United States is a dirty campaign to protect US farmers, according to the National Front of Lawmakers from the Rural Sector.
Front President Heladio Ramirez criticized the ruling by the US Food and Drug Administration and described it as "a game of unhealthy free trade" in detriment of Mexican producers.
According to the newspaper El Financiero, Washington has punished Mexico with protectionist schemes since the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed.
During the NAFTA years, reported the newspaper, Mexican producers of tuna, avocado, steel byproducts, cement and bee honey have been victims of those unfair measures.
The same happened with such products as tomato, pepper and even typical sweets, El Financiero recalled. |
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