Taiwan to stop importing Canadian beef products from U.S.
US - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued on Tuesday updated export requirements for Taiwan regarding fresh/frozen boneless beef derived from Canadian cattle under 30 months of age.Effective with an Oct. 9, 2006, slaughter date, beef derived from cattle imported from Canada for immediate slaughter are not eligible for export to Taiwan.
“Earlier this year, South Korea made clear its concern with Canadian beef being commingled with U.S. beef and requested that its imports of U.S. beef not include any product from Canada,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “USDA has not reported any sales activity to South Korea this year, according to the latest weekly export sales report, for the period ending Sept. 21.
“Certainly, implementation of Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) would facilitate such requests and ensure that our foreign customers not only receive beef that is exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S., but that our domestic customers also have that same opportunity – to identify and choose USA beef,” Bullard explained.
R-CALF USA continues to urge USDA to postpone indefinitely its plans to allow into the U.S. cattle over 30 months (OTM) of age from Canada, and beef from those OTM cattle, until the full scope of Canada’s BSE problem is scientifically known and a new risk assessment is completed that incorporates the four separate BSE-infected cows born after the 1997 implementation of Canada’s feed ban. Additionally, under USDA’s Minimal Risk Rule, the agency should no longer allow Canada to be eligible to export live cattle under 30 months of age to the United States until a comprehensive analysis is completed on Canada’s discovery of a BSE-positive cow just over four years old.
R-CALF USA also continues to urge USDA to take additional steps to ensure the BSE problem in Canada does not continue to adversely affect exports of U.S. beef.
TheCattleSite News Desk