February 20, 2004

USDA Says No More Obstacles in Convincing Mexico to Lift Ban on US Beef

Now that the U.S. has answered all of Mexico's questions on bovine spongiform encephalopathy safety measures and a compilation of all that data is being made, the U.S. has no further obstacles in convincing Mexico to lift its ban on U.S. beef, U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary J.B. Penn said Thursday.
 
Penn said Mexican officials asked for the data compilation to help them with their "internal deliberation" and USDA agreed to provide that. He said compilation package is being translated now into Spanish and should arrive in Mexico in "a day or two."
 
Penn would not speculate on how long the Mexican officials would need to deliberate.
 
Mexico traditionally is the second-largest foreign market for U.S. beef. The U.S. exported 314,359 metric tons of beef to Mexico from January through November last year, worth $818 million, according to USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
 
Mexico placed a ban on U.S. beef soon after the USDA announced that a Holstein cow tested positive for BSE in Washington state on Dec. 23.
 
Ellen Terpstra, administrator of USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service, told OsterDowJones Thursday she believes Mexico could lift its ban on U.S. beef "in the next couple of days."
 
Meanwhile, Penn said talks between the U.S. and Japan continue over that country's ban on U.S. beef, but he gave no details.
 
Japan, the largest market for U.S. beef before a case of BSE was discovered here, imported 352,448 metric tons of U.S. beef from January through November last year, worth about $1.3 billion, according to USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.