EU lift ban on British beef
2006-03-08 13:16
Brussels - European Union food safety experts agreed
on Wednesday to lift a 10-year beef export ban imposed on
Britain at the peak of the 1990s mad cow scare, giving a boost
to its struggling beef industry, the EU executive said.
"The UK has made great strides in tackling this disease, and
has met all of the criteria that were set for the lifting of the
beef export ban, in line with scientific and veterinary advice,"
EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos
Kyprianou said in a statement.
"We must now acknowledge this and resume normal trade in
this area," he said.
The vote to lift the ban by the experts, representing the
EU's 25 member countries, was unanimous.
British beef exports to the European Union were halted in
1996 as brain-wasting Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE),
popularly known as mad cow disease, spread through the country.
Some 150 people also fell victim to the human form of BSE,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, after eating tainted meat.
Britain had already fulfilled the first precondition for
lifting the embargo with a moderate risk status for BSE of fewer
than 200 cattle per million per year affected with the disease.
The European Parliament now has 30 days to examine the
experts' decision which also applies to British exports of live
cattle and calves to the rest of the EU.
While it cannot stop the ban being lifted, the EU assembly
could exert political pressure on the European Commission, the
EU executive, to withdraw its proposal.
If all goes smoothly, as expected, British beef could start
to return to EU supermarket shelves in late April or early May,
meat industry officials say.
Britain would then be able to export live cattle born after
August 1 1996, and bovine meat and products produced after June
15 2005, under the same terms as other EU member states.
Britain's last full year of beef exports was in 1995 when
shipments to the EU amounted to some 274 000 tonnes, worth £520m at the time. The main market was
France, which took 80 000 tonnes.
Several schemes have been put in place to enable Britain to
continue to export beef but trade has been very limited.