Transcript as Delivered on the Safety of Food and of Medicine

MICHAEL LEAVITT, SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Good morning. Recent events have forced very clearly as one of our top concerns the safety of food and of medicine.

We have to do everything possible to insure that when a family sits down at night to enjoy their evening meal, that when a parent gives food to a child or in the middle of the night, provides a medicine that they know it's safe. The FDA Commissioner and I have over the last several days raised the safety issue at the highest levels of the Chinese Government.

They've heard our concerns very clearly and I must say that it is not the first time we've discussed it. During my last trip to China, these issues were very much on the minds of the Chinese people. The Chinese understand very well that any nation that does not create an atmosphere of trust with consumers and customers, they will be disadvantaged quickly in a world market.

We emphasized today during our meeting with the Chinese representatives and the ministers the need for three things: the first is to have better cooperation, the second is better information, and the third is regulation that we can understand, agree and feel confident in.

Our staff - today when you arrived I believe has provided you with some fact sheets that give more details as to the specifics of our conversation. Secretary Johanns will speak and then we'd be happy to provide answers to questions that you have regarding both our conversation and our path forward.

Mr. Secretary?

MIKE JOHANNS, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Thank you, Mike. Just a quick refresher if I might in terms of our shared jurisdiction in this area.

The USDA is responsible for meat and poultry, both domestic and imported, and I'd like to say that Health & Human Services or FDA is kind of responsible for everything else, so you can see that the more complex relationship here in many respects is on the FDA side of things.

At the current time, in fact, there is no meat or poultry that is at least lawfully being imported into the United States from China. We did approve a rule some time ago that would allow poultry, but it had to be shipped from approved countries and the only two countries approved were Canada and the United States. So there literally have been no shipments under that rule.

We do have a rule under consideration, but it's a ways down the process before that rule would be done. It's quite a number of months away as a matter of fact, that would allow poultry to be shipped from China that is grown and processed in China. And as I said, that's a ways down the road.

Notwithstanding that fact, however, we have worked very closely with China and we intend to continue to do so. Their meat and poultry system in some respects is like ours.

They have daily inspections and so for us, a major issue is that we want to make sure that their system is very transparent, that we have access to that system, that we can conduct audits when we need to, and we have been able to work with China on those requests. In fact, I think on three occasions, we have done audits in China or done three audits.

All of the issues though that Health & Human Services has raised are issues that we would be a part of, we would participate in, because again, we share jurisdiction here. And we want to make sure that we participate in this process in every way that we can.

So with that, I do want to express my appreciation to Mike and his team for the really outstanding cooperation we've had as we move through these very challenging issues. Thank you.

LEAVITT: Yes sir?

BILL THOMPSON, DOW JONES: I'm Bill Thompson with Dow Jones. And I suppose this is a question for the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Johanns, so I take it you are in no way reconsidering a decision to allow the import of domestic Chinese poultry. And you said you're working to get a more transparent system. Is it to say that it is not transparent now?

And some of these questions the FDA has raised about companies have to be registered and so forth, do companies have to be registered to export poultry to the United States?

JOHANNS: We would issue a certificate if I remember the process correctly, and I don't - Doctor, I don't believe we've issued any certificates for - we have not issued any certificates, Bill, for the shipment of poultry. This was clearly a situation where the rule was promulgated probably for commercial reasons.

They decided it just didn't make a lot of sense to transport poultry from Canada or the United States all the way to China, process it, and then send it back. So they have never taken any shipment. We have not received any shipment under that rule.

The new rule, the new rule is in process and it won't be a situation where we would reconsider that rule because we haven't even had public comment yet. We haven't published that rule. At some point, it will be published.

We're doing internal work at this point, scientific work, risk analysis, whatever else, but at some point, the public will have an opportunity to comment as this process goes along. So it would not be a situation where we have a rule out and we're reconsidering. That rule is nowhere near being done at this point.

DAVID CURLEY (ph), ABC NEWS: David Curley (ph) from ABC News. It's a long list that you've requested and it's a request of the Chinese. You asked for everything for transparency, to allow audits, to allow VISA's.

What was the reaction of the Chinese to your list of - and if they do not come around and agree to the list, will you allow them to continue to export food and food stuffs to the U.S.?

JOHANNS: Well, let's just acknowledge first of all that assuring the safety of food in large nations is a demanding proposition, whether it's China or the United States. And neither of our countries have perfected this process. There are areas of improvement that we can make in the United States and are working hard to make.

China likewise feels that they have a rigorous regulatory process. It is, however, our responsibility to validate the processes that they have to assure the safety of food in this country and to assure that we can rely on that regulatory process.

We did make a layout, a large agenda, and one of the things that is not included in your packet, we proposed an interagency China/United States government summit at the Vice Minister or Under Secretary level between now and the first of September. I asked them to think about that. I did not ask them for an immediate response to it.

They're going to go back and speak with the other ministries that would be involved and invited them as well to put items on the agenda in the same way that we have. We did not expect that we would resolve all these issues today, nor do I think we'll do it between now and the first of September.

This has got to be an ongoing continuum of progress. The Chinese work hard at food safety in their country. It's important to their citizens. We work hard at food safety in our country. It's important to our citizens. Because there is now so much more interplay happening between our countries, we need to be able to validate the regulatory process for the benefit of our citizens.

Likewise, they need to feel comfortable if there are food shipments going from the United States to China. There are standards issues. There may be different standards in different countries.

We need to be able to reconcile those and understand them and so what we established today was a proposed pathway, a very significant number of items that can go on that agenda and things we'll just have to keep working at until we get better and better at it.

CURLEY (ph): Well, (INAUDIBLE). In their statement (INAUDIBLE), they're saying that this was a shameful experience. What are they telling you?

JOHANNS: We were food and drug regulators today working out common problems. They very clearly want to protect their people in the same way we want to protect ours. They want us to feel a sense of certainty about our - the safety of their products in the same way we want them with ours.

We did not go into this today with the idea that we were asking for anything other than let's have a cooperative process that allows us as nations who are having more and more commerce between ourselves to have standards of food safety we can both feel good about.

Yes, ma'am?

MISSY RYAN, RYDER'S (ph): Missy Ryan from Ryder's (ph). This question is for either Secretary Leavitt or Secretary Johanns. I guess I'm just not really clear on what the response was from the Chinese officials on the specific proposals.

I mean, can we - you're saying it's a pathway. Is it something that was, you know, mutually agreed or did they have any specific response in terms of acceptance or perhaps a rejection of any of these specific points? And moving forward, are you satisfied with the way that this went today or, you know, with the way things will stand as they return to China?

JOHANNS: Let me - Missy, if I might offer, what you have in front of you in terms of those specific points are HHS points, Health & Human Services. So I'm really going to ask Mike to comment on the first part of your question, but in terms of the second part of your question, I felt good about the meeting today.

This is not the only discussion we've had on food safety over the last 48 to 72 hours. There have been a number of meetings where we would step aside from the formal meeting of the SED. We brought the issue up in the SED meeting. Mike did also, so I think we've had a very good discussion.

I think they know exactly what's on our mind and our concerns, where we would like to proceed from here, and I have to tell you, my perception at the end of the meeting was that they were looking at the recommendations that were being made in the light of wanting to work together and the light of a cooperative spirit, if you will.

LEAVITT: It occurred to me in the midst of the meeting how valuable the SED has been in forming relationships that allow this kind of candid conversation to go on. We spoke candidly and we need to be able to, to work out this kind of dilemma or this kind of process in the future.

It is - the safety of food is not an easy proposition in any large nation and we're all working to perfect our process.

RYAN: But they didn't express (INAUDIBLE) exactly?

LEAVITT: I didn't ask them to. I said to them, we need a path forward. Here is a proposed meeting or process. Here is an agenda of items we would like to have considered in that process. You may have items that you'd like to add to it as well. We'd like you to think about it, talk with the other ministers and get back with us.

We had a -- that was the only appropriate action for today, but they did respond in a positive way to the idea, but there are others in the Chinese Government they need to confer with in order to finalize such an arrangement.

I'll just answer whoever you hand the microphone to.

ADA WOO (ph), THE TANNER PRESS (ph): My name is Ada Woo (ph) with The Tanner Press (ph). According to the (INAUDIBLE) with the FDA's Office of International Programs, the U.S. investigators in China received a very good cooperation from China's side in the tainting of pet food investigation.

So my question is, as the secretary for Health & Human Services, how do you comment on the cooperation of the Chinese Government on this issue?

LEAVITT: We appreciate deeply the fact that we have a relationship that allows that kind of mutual investigation. We can get better at it, and part of our discussion today was how can we streamline and smooth that process?

It isn't the last time it will happen perhaps in either country and we need to be in a position to respond in a way that becomes routine and comfortable.

Let's make certain to get the microphone to the back, OK.

ANDREW RIDGES (ph), AP: Secretary Leavitt, what percentage of feed and food ingredients from China now come from registered firms? And are you confident?

LEAVITT: I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I'd refer you to the FDA who likely would be able to be more responsive than I can.

RIDGES (ph): But whatever that percentage may be, are you confident in that whatever laws and regulations they have to adhere to are enough to protect U.S. consumers?

LEAVITT: Well, as indicated, we believe it can be done better and that we need a pathway forward to improve and perfect what we are now striving to do. And what we talked about today was a way in which that could be done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are other nations like U.S. who share a concern like Japan or EU. Are there any ways to coordinate some international effort in that sense?

LEAVITT: Well, the World Health Organization has established standards and one of the things we talked about today was the importance of all of us adhering to those and using them as a common framework for the kind of global interaction that has now become part of our lives.

EMILY BROWN, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Emily Brown with Bloomberg News. I wanted to talk about the recent report of this contaminated toothpaste. Can you tell me how many shipments of toothpaste from China have been stopped by the U.S.?

Can you confirm that for me? And also, do you know whether these brands or this toothpaste is known for any significant brands that are sold here like Colgate and Crest?

LEAVITT: I'd refer those questions to the Food and Drug Administration. In passing it to them - and there are representatives here today who can speak with you. What I am told is that there is no evidence that any of the toothpaste in question has come to the United States.

And the testing that we're doing is purely precautionary and that there is no incidence at this point where we feel there is a product that could have been in fact contaminated. I will say we talked at length today with the Chinese about this incident.

They referenced the fact that different countries have different standards for the chemicals in question and talked about the, again, this as an example of the need for common standards and the capacity to exchange information so that as we have circumstances like this come up, we can put it into a context.

Thank you. Oh, one more?

RICHARD KNOTTS (ph), NPR: Excuse me, Richard Knotts (ph) from NPR. In perfecting the United States' food safety procedures, does the FDA need to beef up its inspection force to test more products at the borders?

LEAVITT: Well, that's an ongoing conversation. Obviously we want to make certain that it is safe and it's a matter that we're considering as well as the Congress. Americans need to know that all precautions reasonable have been taken.

One of the discussions that's ongoing right now is the question of what if we inspected twice as many or twice the percentage that we do? How much safer would our products be? Those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking, and we are.

Well, thank you all very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I apologize. I asked you yesterday this question, but we didn't have a camera, today we do. And it's back to this question.

LEAVITT: I better be more careful than I was yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's back to this question of cooperation. From the release, and what you're asking the Chinese, one would assume that there was not cooperation because there was a delay of the inspectors getting in. And then once they got in, the two plants they went to look at had been cleaned up. What was your message to the Chinese about that kind of cooperation other than what you suggested in the release.

LEAVITT: We need to be able to validate that the regulatory process that the Chinese use will protect the people of the United States. And part of the process at getting better at this is to create an atmosphere where this kind of discussion is routine, understandable and smooth. And we'll get better at it than we are now. And I think we're both committed to that purpose.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much.

END

Last revised: March 13, 2008