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WASHINGTON: Canada, Mexico and the United States made a joint call on Saturday for the outbreak of H1N1 flu virus not to hamper global trade.
In a statement the Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Mexican Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas appealed to trading partners as some threw up bans on pork imports from affected areas.
"We strongly urge the international community not to use the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza as a reason to create unnecessary trade restrictions and that decisions be made based on sound scientific evidence," the statement read.
All three countries "are committed to ongoing monitoring and vigilance in both public and animal health," it added.
The statement game as Canadian authorities said pigs from a herd in Alberta had tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus.
But international organisations insist there is no new risk to human health from pork.
Up to now "there is no evidence that the virus is transmitted by food," the World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Trade Organisation and World Organisation for Animal Health said in a separate joint statement.
"There is currently therefore no justification... for the imposition of trade measures on the importation of pigs or their products," they added.
Nearly 20 countries, including China and Russia, have imposed bans on the importation of pigs and pork products from Canada, the United States and Mexico.
- AFP/yb
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