Comment from Rachael Ehlich

I applaud the United States' effort to make it easier for these countries to export these pork/swine products to the United States. Unnecessary barriers benefit neither country. But I do have some concerns. Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect that a country have NO risk of the disease/contamination/outbreak concerns that are the cause for the rules/procedures currently in place. But in reading the information gathered about these countries, there seemed to me to be a few too many instances of the report acknowledging that there was a risk, but then dismissing the risk as low or unlikely or one that could likely be contained quickly. This would be less troubling if it didn't seem that much of the confidence in these countries seems to come solely from the fact that they are now EU members. The EU is clearly doing a fine job of monitoring the swine/pork products their citizens consume, but perhaps that should not be the sole qualification necessary for loosened restrictions. An more thorough explanation of why these risks are not of concern might help eliminate this suspicion.