Canada, Mexico and the US want to create new international guidelines that would reduce the impact of BSE, or mad cow disease, on trade, according to officials.
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The three countries are to present proposals to the 164 member countries of the Office International des Epizooties, or World Organisation for Animal Health, in September, reported Dow Jones Commodities Service.
The calls for new guidelines have arisen from the recent BSE case in Canada that caused many countries to ban imports of Canadian beef. US government officials continue to complain about the “disproportionate trade reaction that occurred as a result of the one single case in Canada,” Alex Thiermann, a BSE expert for the OIE, was quoted by Dow Jones as saying.
The US and Japan were among the many countries that placed bans on Canadian beef when a BSE case was discovered in May. When it emerged, however, that the case appeared to be isolated, the US said it still could not reopen its border because of fears it would risk its export market to Japan. Japan, which has itself experienced a devastating outbreak of BSE, said it would need assurances from the US that any beef exported from the US to Japan had not originated in Canada.
Peter Fernandez, the US Department of Agriculture’s delegate to the OIE, told OsterDowJones that an outbreak of a disease such as BSE “shouldn’t be the end of the world. We’re trying to find ways that countries can find a means to continue to trade.”
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