March 8, 2007

US cattle group opposes Argentina meat imports over safety concerns
 

American cattle stockgrowers group R-CALF USA has submitted comments to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) the request the agency to withdraw - for several reasons - its proposed rule on meat imports from Argentina's Patagonia South region.

The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on January 5, would recognize for the first time the disease status of a sub-region of a country that would export fresh and frozen meat to the United States. This pending change would declare that particular portion of Argentina as free of rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

The introduction of FMD to the United States would impose enormous financial losses for the US livestock and meat industries, said R-CALF USA president/region VI director Max Thornsberrry.

Thornsberry, who also chairs the organisation's Animal Health Committee, said any changes on import standards regarding FMD must be undertaken with the greatest caution.

He added that even if FMD is not introduced into the US as a result of recognizing sub-national regions, the practice may create conflicts with trading partners and impede US exports of livestock and meat products.

Thornsberry also said the risk assessment upon which this proposed rule is based is already outdated and fails to take account that Argentina had its first outbreak of FMD since 2003 in February 2006.

He said the Argentine government believed the FMD virus may have come from abroad since the outbreak occurred 25 kilometres from the Paraguay border.

The US import safeguards for FMD have not been tested with respect to a sub-national zone within a country, and the proposed safeguards fail to account for the fact that the World Organization for Animal Health's (OIE's)

eligibility criteria for FMD-free zones are more lax than the criteria for FMD-free countries, said Thornsberry.

In this case, given the recent FMD outbreak in Argentina and the failure of the risk analysis to take this outbreak into account - as well as the lack of compensating safeguards in proposed regulations to account for the differences in OIE rules regarding FMD-free zones - Thornsberry said R-CALF USA recommends the proposed rule be withdrawn as it poses unacceptable risks to US farmers and ranchers.