Argentina asks USDA to lift beef ban
"Trust" seen as major roadblock in FMD dispute
WASHINGTON (OsterDowJones)--Argentina is eager to regain the 20,000- metric-ton market share for fresh beef that it once had in the U.S. and officials are pressing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lift some of the restrictions placed on trade 2 1/2 years ago because of a cattle disease outbreak.
USDA officials completed an exploratory mission this month to begin evaluating cattle conditions there, but Argentina Agriculture Minister Miguel Campos said he urged Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman in a December meeting to accelerate the progress.
Campos is the second Argentine emissary to deliver that message to USDA since October, when Ambassador Jose Bordon visited.
The U.S. border slammed shut to Argentine beef in June 2001, after outbreaks of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease were reported in northern regions of the country. USDA officials said, however, the department now believes cattle there had been infected far earlier.
On June 1, 2001, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service made the ban on Argentine beef retroactive to Feb. 19, just four months after the USDA announced Argentina had "quickly detected and detained" a previous FMD outbreak and retracted a brief three-month beef ban.
Cattle lobbyists here accused Argentina of concealing outbreaks and criticized USDA for being too lax on its import policy.
Bill Bullard, CEO of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, said the cattle group was sure that Argentina was still combating the disease even after USDA cleared the country in October 2000.
"They were just not disclosing it to the Unites States and when they did announce that they in fact still had the disease (in 2001), they reported a large number of cases indicating that the disease had been prevalent for some time prior."
"There is a trust issue" with Argentina, said a USDA official, who asked not to be named.
Campos told OsterDowJones he does not expect the U.S. to open up to those regions yet, but he stressed that the disease-free southern area known as Patagonia, a major beef-producing region, has been shut out from the U.S. market far too long because of the problems to the north.
Argentina exported $52 million worth of beef to the U.S. in 1999, $43 million in 2000 and $11 million in 2001--the year the U.S. erected the ban because of the outbreak, according to USDA data compiled by its Foreign Agriculture Service.
Much of those beef sales to the U.S., Campos said, could be regained from herds in Patagonia in the southern half of Argentina.
Anne Goodman, an FMD specialist for USDA, said the department is willing and able to eventually allow Argentina to begin exporting beef from Patagonia, but USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proceeding with caution to make sure it considers every safety factor.
Bordon and Campos are optimistic that USDA will pronounce southern Argentina FMD-free sometime next year. But Goodman, who supervises the work APHIS is doing, described a plodding process that is still in the in the early stages.
Caution is paramount when it comes to keeping FMD out of the U.S., according to a USDA report submitted this year to Congress. "A single infected animal or one contaminated sausage could carry the virus to American livestock," the report said.
Unlike bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, FMD is not a threat to human health, but an outbreak here threatens "extensive economic losses," USDA said in the report. "The most significant direct economic effects to livestock owners would come from the necessity to depopulate any infected herds. Meat, milk, and other products from infected animals would not be allowed into the food chain."
Jose Molina, who represents Argentina's agriculture interests at the country's embassy here, does not fault the U.S. for reacting the way it did to the disease outbreaks, but stressed it is time the USDA recognizes it does not have to penalize the entire country for isolated problems.
"We have the disease, we recognize we have the disease and we're working to control the disease," Molina said.
The World Organization for Animal Health, known commonly by the French acronym OIE, of which the U.S. is a member, recognizes Argentina's Patagonia region as FMD-free.
Date: 12/29/03
Copyright 1995-2011. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com
Inside Futures |