News In Brief

14 nations told to stop exporting meat to US

Fourteen countries will be barred from shipping meat and poultry to the US starting Jan. 1, because of deficient inspection programs, the Department of Agriculture said.

The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, and France were notified of the ban. Meat products of nine other nations - Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Iceland, Czechoslovakia, Argentina, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands - will be accepted because they meet the stricter requirements of 1981 legislation.