January 7, 2004

 

Mexican To Import Low Risk US Beef Cuts

 

Mexico will consider importing low risk cuts of U.S. beef as exceptions to a ban that followed a case of mad cow disease in the U.S., agriculture officials said Tuesday.

 

But Mexican Agriculture Minister Javier Usabiaga said at a press conference that a decision to make exceptions could take months.

 

Mexican officials plan to meet Tuesday with U.S. Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services J.B. Penn and U.S. Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bill Hawks.

 

The meetings would be a first step in discussing a possible exception for low-risk cuts.

 

Javier Trujillo, director of safety and inspection at the Agriculture Ministry, said the first issue to be addressed is whether a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, means a whole country is infected.

 

Mexico banned imports of all U.S. cattle and beef on Dec. 24 after a case of BSE was discovered in Washington state.

 

Trujillo said Mexico will consider importing meat taken from parts of the cow not close to the nervous system.

 

"We don't think that a country that's honest in its statements, like the U.S. has been, should be punished." he said. 

 

Trujillo noted that in the case of Canada, Mexico took four months before making exceptions for certain cuts of beef.

 

Usabiaga stressed that in the U.S. case a decision will also take time.

 

"In the area of health, we can't have any pressures," he said.

 

The U.S. shipped 106,000 head of cattle to Mexico in 2002, and Mexico was the top buyer of U.S. beef that year in terms of volume, importing 384,900 tons.

 

Trujillo said Australia, Canada and Nicaragua are likely to supply Mexico's beef needs arising from the ban on U.S. meat, and that Mexico is evaluating the sanitary status of Uruguay.

 

Mexico also bans beef and cattle imports from countries not listed as being free of foot-and-mouth disease, such as Argentina and Brazil.