April 28, 2004

Canada Asks Philippines To Relax Rules On Beef Imports

The Canadian government has asked the Philippine Department of Agriculture to further relax rules on Canadian beef imports, the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service in Manila said Tuesday.
 
Trade Commissioner Butch Dela Cruz said he is working closely with the Bureau of Animal Industry and the National Meat Inspection Commission for the possibility of further easing import rules covering Canadian beef.
 
In May 2003, the Philippines issued an import ban on beef from Canada following the discovery of a mad cow disease case in the province of Alberta.
 
Mad cow disease, scientifically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is believed to cause a brain-wasting disease in humans known as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
 
The agriculture department lifted the ban in August last year. However, stringent rules were put in place to regulate Canadian beef imports.
 
Part of the rules provides that "only deboned and deglanded beef from cattle not older than 30 months, devoid of any nerves and other BSE specified risk materials shall be imported."
 
According to Dela Cruz, there are certain muscle parts in cattle, that based on research, don't contain the protein that carry the disease. These muscle parts should be allowed for export to the Philippines, he said.
 
In 2002, the Philippines imported 767,222 kilograms of cattle parts from Canada, up sharply from the previous year's import volume of 288,695 kg.
 
Between January and May 5 last year, the latest data available show the country imported 474,709 kg of beef parts from Canada.