Central America

Written June 25, 2008

Yesterday, we held an all day session on product safety with representatives of the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. We had Health Ministers from several of the countries and representatives of Agriculture and Commerce Ministries as well. I met with President Antonio Saca of El Salvador for about 30 minutes in advance of the meeting. He formally opened the meeting.

Secretary Mike Leavitt (2nd from left of those seated) listens as President Antonio Saca of El Salvador addresses attendees at the Product Safety Forum.

Our purpose was to begin a conversation with the participating nations on changing our collective strategy related to the safety of food. Central America and the Dominican Republic have become a major factor in U.S. food production. Collectively, these countries rank just behind Mexico and Canada in importation of food into the United States. A trip to the grocery store fruit and vegetable section will confirm that.

These countries properly fear any kind of import quality problem because it is seriously disruptive to their economy. The U.S. is 80% of their market. A situation like the melon problem we had in Honduras or the tomato situation in Mexico also damages their national brand.

In previous blogs, I have discussed our nation's strategic change. Our efforts are focused on preventing problems before they happen. Our best tactic to accomplish that is the establishment of quality standards and the continual monitoring of them through independent certification. I explain in my blog on the Red Pepper Principle, how implementing new practices can make crops attractive because of higher quality.

We had five panel discussions, all of which went well. Just before lunch, I asked the participants to consider an idea that I wanted to discuss during the afternoon. The idea was to create a U.S./ Central America/ Dominican Republic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on food and drug safety. Under this MOU, we would engage in regional capacity-building, joint standards-development, development of accreditation arrangements for certifiers and training at the Regional health-care Training center we have developed in Panama. I suggested that we identify a couple of product categories to start with. After lunch, the panel discussions began to center around the MOU idea. By the end of the session, we had devised a strategy to move the idea forward, with a goal of completing the MOU this fall. The meeting was a big success from my point of view. We didn’t conclude anything, but we were able to start a serious process. I still have a significant amount of work to do in making contact with other important players.

Dinner last night was terrific. Ambassador Charles Glazer and Mrs. Glazer invited a local mayor and two prominent business executives over. It was a chance for me to learn more about El Salvador. We talked about the challenges of local government and the upcoming national elections.

Comments

I appreciate what you guys are doing... thank you.

Posted by: Dave | July 02, 2008 at 08:44 PM