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U.S. officials optimistic about ending importers' bans on beef, poultry
WASHINGTON (AP)--The United States is making headway in lifting the bans that some of its leading customers have imposed on U.S. beef and poultry exports because of mad cow and bird diseases, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials say.
In coming weeks, China may announce progress toward reducing restrictions on U.S. beef and poultry, and Mexico will announce that it will open its borders to more U.S. poultry, they said April 16.
Officials sounded less optimistic about coming talks with Japanese officials.
In a wide-ranging news conference, the officials also said the government's plans to increase testing for mad cow disease are on target.
About 50 other nations also have refused to accept U.S. beef and poultry.
During the April 21 cabinet-level talks of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, China was expected to announce progress toward resuming imports, said J.B. Penn, undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services.
The United States has been trying to persuade leery former importers that U.S. responses to BSE and bird flu comply with international scientific standards on testing and meat safety. Penn said the Chinese are no longer unwilling to consider whether the United States has met the requirements.
"I'm optimistic that if we can get these things on a sound-science basis then we are much better off than when they are arbitrary," Penn said.
Mexico, which had imposed a ban on U.S. poultry because of infectious poultry diseases, will scale its restrictions back sharply to prohibit imports only from Texas, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and California, said Bill Hawks, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. Those states had the most recent cases, although USDA says there is no current sign of disease.
Mexico has been one of America's leading export markets for poultry --the fourth biggest for chicken and the top market for turkey in 2003. "Next week, we should be back to where we were," Hawks said.
Penn found comfort in Japan's offer to hold the talks. "All of us are optimistic that if we are sitting across the table and we are discussing issues, that we have some opportunity to make some progress," he said. He would not predict what the meetings might produce, but he said the Japanese do not want mad cow to be "a major trade irritant."
Japan insists the U.S. perform BSE tests on all animals at slaughter, as Japan does. Japan had been America's top-dollar beef importer before the ban, and its refusal to back away from its prohibitions is a sore point with the United States, which accuses Japan of going beyond what makes scientific sense.
The government is on target to start its expanded testing program for BSE in June, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
After the BSE case, the U.S. raised its target from 20,000 cattle to over 200,000. The government should start the expanded tests in June, DeHaven said. He expected to meet the testing target a year after that. "We are ramping up as we speak," he said.
Date: 5/5/04
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