United States Lifts European Beef Ban
GLOBAL – The European Union (EU) has praised the US for ending the ban on EU beef and coming into line with international bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) trade rulings.
5 November 2013
1 minute read
Beef and other bovine exports will now be exportable to the US now the ‘unjustified’ ban on EU beef has been abolished, the Commission announced on Saturday.
United States Department of Agriculture standards, signed in 1997, went beyond the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) protocol which allowed deboned skeletal muscle beef to be ‘free traded across all countries’.
This was despite a 2005 OIE ruling which stated that EU beef was safe.
An EU spokesperson said: "The EU internal market has delivered a high level of food safety for consumers both in the EU and abroad, based on international standards and solid science.
“The agriculture and food sectors have to be able to capitalize on this achievement. This market opening also sends an important signal to the EU's trading partners worldwide that EU beef is safe, and that imports of EU beef should resume quickly.”
Goat and sheep meat exports are also expected to be lifted soon.
TheCattleSite News Desk
