The ban on importing meat from Samoa to American Samoa has been a long-standing issue with federal regulations to be met.
However, the Director of Agriculture Solia Mutini says a decision will be finalized at the Atoa o Samoa talks scheduled next month.
Mutini told Samoa News the final decision “will be my call”.
Last month the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman accompanied Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa during a Joint Press Conference at the Faleolo International Airport VIP Lounge and this was one of the issues discussed.
The media in Samoa pointed out to the U.S. Deputy Secretary that Samoa has been trying to export meat to American Samoa, but due to biosecurity issues imposed by the federal government that are quite restrictive this had not happened until now what are the chances of relaxing those rules?
“Samoa is our closest neighbour because of American Samoa and I know there is a strong and close relationship between you,” she said.
“Many people go back and forth in fact to live and to work and I can appreciate that trade rules sometimes create barriers that don’t make common sense in terms of what is needed. I don’t have a particular answer for you today, but I will certainly take the concern back and see if there is anything that can happen,” she said at the time.
Sherman further pointed out it was quite right — that particularly in smaller countries the U.S. bureaucracy can sometimes seem overwhelming and the processes are so complicated.
“And things takes so long and smaller countries may not have the depth and breadth of people simply to manage all the paper work that is necessary.
“So we will take a look at all of these things and see what is possible but we will certainly want to make sure that the strong relationship between American Samoa and Samoa remains strong and vibrant as it is.”
Fiame at the time said this came up in the earlier talks with American Samoa.
“Essentially it is an issue for American Samoa to try and resolve whether they might have some sort of dispensation, if just between the two Samoas” — adding that she thought the Deputy Secretary indicated such.
“I don’t need to explain to you about the standards and the measures that are required of productions and so forth but it was discussed between the two Samoas and they will again take the lead on talking to the appropriate authorities on how the issues might be resolved and it may not only just be meat, it might be on other things if we from here exporting to American Samoa but that there are federal requirements then it’s a whole range of discussions that need to take place.”