Rule Allowing European Beef Imports to U.S. Takes Effect; EU Hopes for More
Beef from the European Union may once again be imported into the U.S., after the Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service’s final rule on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease) took effect on March 4 (see 13120320). Beef imports from the EU had been subject to a ban since 1997, following the mad cow disease scare in the United Kingdom.
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Under the Dec. 3 final rule, countries may be classified into “negligible risk” or “controlled risk” categories, with conditions of importation for each (see 13110403). Beef from countries or regions of “undetermined risk” are still prohibited. In late January, APHIS sent a letter to importers outlining the new conditions of importation (here). As of Dec. 4, the APHIS website says countries in each respective risk classification are as follows (here):
Negligible risk: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, and Uruguay.
Controlled risk: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
EU Hopes to Eliminate More U.S. Trade Barriers Through TTIP
The lifting of the ban coincides with the fourth round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment (TTIP) that wrapped up on March 14 (see 14031101). In a recent report on trade barriers (here), The EU says it intends to use that forum to press for further reductions in sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions. The U.S. has also expanded the list of EU member states that it considers free of Classical Swine Fever, Avian Influenza, Newcastle disease, and partially Swine Vesicular Disease, said the report, but trade barriers remain.
"Rather than treating member states individually, U.S. import conditions should reflect the reality of the EU single entity and single market as well as the animal health management decisions adopted by the EU in due time and the existing provisions of international standardization bodies,” said the report. "EU applications for exporting products of animal origin face long delays for example as regards Grade A dairy products, live bivalve mollusks and small ruminant products.”