March 17, 2005

Foreign markets plans to start import of US beef

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the process of negotiating with other countries in order to re-start its export of beef which suffered a major setback since Dec. 2003.

Egypt

In the near future, Egyptian Minister of Agriculture would be allowing US to export boneless beef from animals under the age of 30 months. USDA is setting up a BEV ¨C "Beef Export Verification", which would ensure that Canadian beef is not exported or mixed with US beef. Egypt's import accounted for 2.2 million in 2003 of US beef.

Taiwan

An interagency committee of Taiwan approved the import of US beef and this would now go into the final approval phase by Executive Yuan. Once approved USDA would be required to finalize the terms of trade. US beef import into Taiwan totaled $8 million in 2003.

Hong Kong

Last week USDA and Hong Kong's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a video conference to discuss the possibilities of re-starting import of US beef. However, FDA highlighted its concern asking for stringent checks and measures for the removal of SRM as well as animal identification system. The concerns are being discussed and addressed. Hong Kong's import of US beef figures to $9.8 million.