Day 068 - 16 Dec 94 - Page 09

     
     1   MR. MORRIS:  I thought Mr. Gonzales would know about it.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may be very shortly dealt with.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  I only make the point that it is difficult to
     6        follow.
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  It was served by the Plaintiffs on our side.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not bother about that.  Quite frankly, we
    11        are going to spend more of today having arguments about
    12        this, that and the other, than we are hearing evidence, at
    13        this rate.
    14
    15   THE WITNESS:  Can you repeat the question, please?
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  So, for the purposes of the Food and Drug
    18        Administration and the US DA, when it refers to a "state"
    19        of the United States, they include Puerto Rico within that
    20        description?
         A.  That is correct.  The United States, Puerto Rico and
    22        any meat plant approved by the United States Department of
    23        Agriculture will follow the same guidelines.  So it is only
    24        for any US DA approved meat plant.  It is not any more than
    25        that.
    26
    27   Q.   The US DA approves meat plants, does it not, in Central and
    28        Latin America, as well, for export purposes?
    29        A.  Yes, they do; only if that country requests the
    30        approval and goes through the right procedures for that
    31        approval, in that case, yes, they do.
    32
    33   Q.   But that would not give them automatic entitlement to be
    34        considered part of the administration territory of the US
    35        DA, as a country, would it?
    36        A.  No, it does not.  It will give only jurisdiction over
    37        the meat plant itself and nowhere else.
    38
    39   Q.   So beef can be exported from one country to another -- we
    40        are talking about beef -- with approval?
         A.  There are a lot of regulations that must be completed
    42        before any product can be exported to any country.  US does
    43        not import or receive beef or export beef to every country
    44        in the world.  They have to have an agreement.
    45
    46        Many times, even when you have an agreement, many times
    47        when you have a US DA approved plant, in any part of the
    48        world, there are other political barriers that will be
    49        raised that will prevent the importation or exportation of
    50        movement of beef within those particular countries.  I have 
    51        seen many, many of those instances. 
    52 
    53   Q.   So when you import from another country, do you have any
    54        conditions on what you import?  I am talking about in terms
    55        of the type of beef.  Is it in any form live or boxed or
    56        patty form, or are there conditions?
    57        A.  Yes.  We do have a lot of requirements.  A lot of them
    58        are not written.  A lot of them go -- I can tell you an
    59        example:  for example, on live cattle we do not.  That is
    60        where we use the experts that we have in our fields, such