EU relaxes ban on British beef exports

The carcasses must be from cows younger than 30 months old and completely boned and stripped of nerve strands. “Today’s decision is a milestone for the beef industry in the United Kingdom,” said Lord Dubs, Britain’s under-secretary of state in the Northern Ireland office. Germany and Belgium had voted against the measure while Luxembourg and Spain abstained.

Franz-Josef Feiter, Germany’s deputy agriculture minister, said “it’s going to be very difficult to control herd movements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and in particular making surethat beef only comes from the province and not elsewhere in Britain.

“This decision is not good psychologically for the German beef market; the German consumer is very sensitive,” he added. Dubs countered, saying: “I have no doubt that Northern Ireland is well able to meet the animal health assurances required.”

French Agriculture Minister Louis Le Pensec said he voted for the ban’s partial relaxation for “strictly scientific” reasons. The ministers had to rule on the matter after the EU’s permanent veterinary committee failed on March 4 to take a decision on a proposal from the European Commission to ease the ban imposed two years ago.

Exports of British beef were banned in March 1996 after the government said there was a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows which affected thousands of animals in British herds and a new fatal human brain disease. London has several times tried to have the ban lifted, stressing that it had put in place a culling programme that should wipeout the disease.

Northern Ireland has suffered fewer mad cow cases than the other parts of the British Isles. Since 1988, 1,769 cows with BSE have been diagnosed – around three per cent of the total cows there – compared to 170,677 in the rest of the United Kingdom.

After the ruling, British Prime Minister Tony Blair commented in London: “This Is excellent news for the beef industry in this country and proof positive that our fresh start in Europe can make a real difference.”