Source: MEATNGPLACE, 11/8/13

The U.S. Meat Export Federation said USDA’s decision to lift a longtime ban on beef imports from Europe removes one obstacle that has hampered U.S. efforts to expand access to that market.

USDA’S Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service last week announced a final rule that will complete effort to modernize the agency’s import policy for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

The final rule will bring U.S. regulations in line with international standards, which call for countries to base their trade policies on the actual risk of cattle and cattle products harboring the disease.

"We think it is a positive development," USMEF spokesman Joe Schuele told Meatingplace.  

The United States imposed a ban on beef imports from Europe in the 1990s amid concerns about BSE.
Europe is a small market for U.S. beef now, but also a high-value one., Schuele said.

U.S. beef shipped to the EU under the duty-free high-quality beef quota totaled 16,753 metric tons in the one-year period that ended June 30, 2013, according to USMEF figures. That number has been steadily rising and is up from 9,330 metric tons shipped in the year ended June 30, 2010.

It has been difficult to make progress on issues such as restrictions on growth hormones and some processing practices that currently limit U.S. beef exports to the European Union when the United States itself has had an import ban, Schuele said.

Removing that ban “certainly has a lot of upside potential if we can work past some of the restrictions in place,” he said.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.