US embassy cable - 04TEGUCIGALPA2870

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002870 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/ETC:HLee and EB/TPP/ABT:RSingh 
AGRICULTURE FOR USDA/FAS/BIG:JPPassino 
GUATEMALA FOR AGATT SHUETE 
SAN SALVADOR FOR DTHOMPSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, ECON, EFIN, HO 
SUBJECT:  Honduras: Biosafety Update 
 
REF:  SECSTATE 259661 
 
1.  Summary: The GOH has introduced no new restrictive laws or 
regulations that pertain to Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) or 
biotechnology since the First Meeting of the Parties to the 
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in February 2004.  Honduras 
remains generally open to the import of LMOs and biotech crops. 
However, the application of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) 
requirements is sometimes lacking in transparency, resulting in 
uncertainty among U.S. suppliers and Honduran importers.  Several 
examples are provided below of instances in which the application 
of SPS regulations has adversely impacted U.S. companies in 2004. 
End summary. 
 
2.  Since 2002, Honduras has imposed a ban on poultry products 
from a number of states in the U.S. because of concerns over low- 
pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI).  The ban was revised and 
renewed in March 2004, in spite of World Organization for Animal 
Health (OIE) guidelines that the presence of LPAI does not 
justify trade restrictions and despite information provided to 
GOH officials by USDA indicating the dates on which depopulation 
and surveillance testing were completed in the affected states. 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that if Honduran 
restrictions on U.S. raw poultry and poultry parts were lifted, 
U.S. producers could export an additional $10 million of poultry 
products to Honduras annually. 
 
3.  In January 2004, U.S. rice exporters complained that they 
were being forced to fumigate with methyl bromide shipments of 
U.S. rice that had false smut present before the shipment would 
be allowed into Honduras.  This restriction added costs and 
delays to the shipping and is not justifiable on food safety 
grounds.  (The presence of false smut is a quality issue, but the 
GOH imposed restrictions as if it were a health issue.)  In 
September 2004, the GOH authorities stopped requiring fumigation 
in response to information provided by APHIS on the practice. 
 
4.  The Honduran government requires that sanitary permits be 
obtained from the Ministry of Health for all imported foodstuffs 
and that all processed food products be labeled in Spanish and 
registered with the Division of Food Control (DFC) of the 
Ministry of Health.  During 2003, a U.S. supermarket chain 
complained that these regulations were not being strictly 
enforced for many of its Honduran competitors.  This lack of 
enforcement on the part of the Honduran government places any 
U.S. company that does comply with the regulations at a 
disadvantage. 
 
5.  The Embassy has also received complaints from a regional 
supermarket chain that imported more than $40 million worth of 
U.S. goods into the region in 2003 and believes the amount of its 
imports into Honduras could grow significantly if a more 
transparent and efficient process of granting sanitary permits 
existed.  Specifically, the company has complained that the 
length of time required for a sanitary permit to be granted 
(usually 2 to 3 months) is too long, that the cost of a permit 
($500 - $600) is excessive, and that the application requires 
information that is difficult to obtain and has little to do with 
the safety of the product in question. 
 
Palmer