U.S. officials fuming over Russian beef import ban

The welcome news in the United States of expanded beef trade with Japan was tempered when Russia announced a ban on meat imports because they may contain ractopamine.

The dispute with Russia is more than a disagreement over whether pork and beef might contain residues of the feed additive, said U.S. officials.

“It is not about ractopamine,” Gary Horlick, trade adviser to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said during the association’s annual meeting held Feb. 5-9 in Tampa.