Release No. 0175.16
Contact: Office of Communications press@oc.usda.gov (202) 720-4623
USDA Announces Reopening of Brazilian Market to U.S. Beef Exports
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2016 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has
reached agreement with Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food
Supply to allow access for U.S. beef and beef products to the Brazilian market
for the first time since 2003. Brazil's action reflects the United States'
negligible risk classification for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) by the
World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and aligns Brazil's regulations to
the OIE's scientific international animal health guidelines.
"After many years of diligently working to regain access to the Brazilian
market, the United States welcomes the news that Brazil has removed all barriers
to U.S. beef and beef product exports," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
"We are pleased that Brazil, a major agricultural producing and trading country,
has aligned with science-based international standards, and we encourage other
nations to do the same. Since last year alone, USDA has eliminated BSE-related
restrictions in 16 countries, regaining market access for U.S. beef and pumping
hundreds-of-millions of dollars into the American economy.
"The Brazilian market offers excellent long-term potential for U.S. beef
exporters. The United States looks forward to providing Brazil's
200-million-plus consumers, and growing middle class, with high-quality American
beef and beef products," Vilsack said.
Both countries will immediately begin updating their administrative
procedures in order to allow trade to resume. U.S. companies will need to
complete Brazil's regular facilities registration process.
In a separate decision, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
also recently determined that Brazil's food safety system governing meat
products remains equivalent to that of the United States and that fresh (chilled
or frozen) beef can be safely imported from Brazil. Following a multi-year
science based review consistent with U.S. food safety regulations for countries
that export meat, poultry and egg products to the U.S., FSIS is amending the
list of eligible countries and products authorized for export to the United
States to allow fresh (chilled or frozen) beef from Brazil.
The Brazilian agreement is just the latest example of USDA's ongoing
efforts to knock down barriers to U.S. exports. In 2016 alone, these efforts
have led to the reopening of the Saudi Arabian and Peruvian markets for U.S.
beef, the South Korean market for U.S. poultry, and the South African market for
U.S. poultry, pork and beef. In 2015, U.S. beef exports reached $6.3 billion
thanks to aggressive efforts by USDA to eliminate BSE-related restrictions in 16
countries since January 2015, gaining additional market access for U.S. beef in
Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Guatemala, Iraq, Lebanon, Macau, New Zealand, Peru,
Philippines, Saint Lucia, Singapore, South Africa, Ukraine, Vietnam and, now,
Brazil.
The past seven years have represented the strongest period in history for
American agricultural exports, with international sales of U.S. farm and food
products totaling $911.4 billion between fiscal years 2009 and 2015.
Since 2009, USDA has worked to strengthen and support American agriculture,
an industry that supports one in 11 American jobs, provides American consumers
with more than 80 percent of the food we consume, ensures that Americans spend
less of their paychecks at the grocery store than most people in other
countries, and supports markets for homegrown renewable energy and materials.
USDA has also provided $5.6 billion in disaster relief to farmers and ranchers;
expanded risk management tools with products like Whole Farm Revenue Protection;
and helped farm businesses grow with $36 billion in farm credit. The Department
has engaged its resources to support a strong next generation of farmers and
ranchers by improving access to land and capital; building new markets and
market opportunities; and extending new conservation opportunities. USDA has
developed new markets for rural-made products, including more than 2,500
biobased products through USDA's BioPreferred program; and invested $64 billion
in infrastructure and community facilities to help improve the quality of life
in rural America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/results.
#
“This is absurd,” said Bullard adding, “Brazil produces far more beef than
it can consume. This is why, with the world’s second largest cattle herd, which
far and away dwarfs the size of the U.S. herd, Brazil is the world’s third
largest beef exporter, behind only India and Australia. And like India and
Australia, Brazil’s imports of U.S. beef for longer than a decade before it
closed its borders to U.S. beef in 2003 were miniscule.
“To say that the Brazilian market affords U.S. cattle producers with
economic opportunities would be laughable if not for the significant risk
associated with Vilsack’s weakening of our longstanding import restrictions for
countries like Brazil that continue to battle foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and
other dangerous livestock diseases.”
Bullard claims that one of the reasons it has taken so long for the USDA to
approve raw beef imports from Brazil was because Brazilian cattle and their
resulting beef continued to exceed tolerance levels for pesticides such as
Ivermectin.
“Brazil lacks the resources and infrastructure to maintain health and
safety standards that are at least equal to that of the United States,” said
Bullard adding, “That is why the USDA lowered the U.S. standard to that of mere
equivalency – which essentially means “close enough.”
“This reckless action by the Secretary, which helps multinational
meatpackers leverage down U.S. cattle prices with increased imports that do not
meet identical U.S. safety standards is yet another in a long line of failures
by the USDA to do anything to strengthen the economic condition of the U.S.
cattle industry.
“The Secretary capitulated on country-of-origin labeling (COOL) and
continues to weaken U.S. import standards that protect our cattle herd and our
customers from foreign diseases, including his most recent proposal to relax our
import standards for raw beef from Namibia, Africa. He has refused to protect
the competitiveness of the U.S. cattle market from antitrust and anticompetitive
practices of the monopolistic meatpackers. He has refused to reform the beef
checkoff program that funds a lobbying group that represents the economic
interests of multinational meatpackers. And, under the Secretary’s watch, our
industry continues to experience an alarming exodus of cattle farmers and
ranchers, feedlot numbers have declined by the tens of thousands, domestic beef
production has fallen to the lowest level since before NAFTA, and the U.S.
cattle herd shrank to the lowest level in over 70 years.
“Even the Secretary’s depiction of exports over the past seven years as
they relate to this particular announcement is deceitful at best. While the
Secretary boasts that ‘the past seven years have represented the strongest
period in history for American agricultural exports,’ this irresponsible
statement purposely omits the fact that while the dollar value of beef and
cattle exports did increase over the past seven years, they were decisively
overwhelmed by record imports, which caused the trade deficit for our industry
to grow from less than $1 billion in 2009 to more than $2.5 billion in
2015.
“We couldn’t be more disappointed in the Secretary’s actions, which clearly
demonstrate that he is advocating the interests of multinational meatpackers at
the expense of independent U.S. farmers and ranchers and consumers,” concluded
Bullard.
# # #
R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of
America) is the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the United
States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the
continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. For more
information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516.
Posted by R-Calf USA on Monday, August 1st, 2016 @ 1:03PM Categories:
Latest News, News Releases, Trade
r-calf deleted my posts, I had three. then r-calf put one of my post back
up, the one that suited them the most. all r-calf wanted to hear about was
Brazil, nothing about the USA. that’s too bad...tss
Terry Singeltary first up, see past history of mad cow political wrangling
here; http://www.mad-cow.org/00/feb01_brazil.html
Brazil: mad cow threat or trade war trashing? 05 Feb 01 By Phil Stewart
Reuters
The timing alone is suspicious. Just one day after Canada failed to win a
fresh World Trade Organization review of Brazil's aircraft subsidy program, it
announced Friday that mad cow fears justify a temporary ban on Brazilian beef
imports. The move was unprecedented. Brazil, home to the world's biggest cattle
herd, has never had a case of mad cow disease. Yet it not only lost the Canadian
market, but also the U.S. and Mexican markets since Canada's decision applied to
the entire NAFTA trade bloc.
Now the big question on everybody's mind is whether Brazil is truly a
threat to food safety -- as Canada contends -- or if this is merely the first
shot in a trade war between the two countries.
"Canada is highly suspect. Had trade relations with Brazil been better,
Canada would never have taken this line of action," said political analyst Andre
Pereira Cesar.
Canada's official line is that Brazil was too slow in passing on
information on the country's 160 million head of cattle. Canada, on behalf of
NAFTA, asked for the documents in May 1998 -- and only received them after it
informed Brazil of the ban last week. The lack of information, Canada argued,
was enough of a health risk to merit a temporary ban.
But in the background is a seething feud between Brazil and Canada over
aircraft subsidies. Canada has already won the right from the WTO to impose
sanctions of $233.5 million a year on Brazil over its ProEx aircraft export
subsidy program.
Canada alleges ProEx has unfairly helped Brazil's top civilian aircraft
manufacturer, Embraer , and robbed sales from Canada's Bombardier Inc. Canada
has repeatedly stressed that the ban on Brazilian beef has nothing to do with
the subsidy dispute. But Brazilian officials see things very differently.
On Monday, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer issued a statement
threatening it would respond if Canada did not not reverse its decision. Brazil
exports $5.5 million in processed beef to Canada annually, and some $82.5
million to the U.S.
"If Canada persists in acts that effectively damage Brazil's foreign trade,
the Brazilian government reserves the right to take measures it judges
convenient," Lafer said, without elaborating. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister
Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes extended his stay in the United States to
appeal to officials in Washington on Monday -- bypassing Canada entirely.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture's representatives in Brazil,
the South American country's cattle seem just fine. "We've done a preliminary
review of the information and there doesn't appear to be any problem," said
William Westman, chief Brazil counselor for the USDA's Foreign Agricultural
Service (FAS) at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia. "From what we've seen from the
preliminary results, there's not an issue here."
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has led to more
than 80 deaths in humans and many scientists believe that people who catch the
illness do so because they ate BSE-infected beef. Mad cow has never been
reported in the U.S. or in Brazil.
Diplomatic sources in Brasilia said they expect NAFTA nations to scrap the
ban on Brazil within six to eight weeks -- the standard review period for
phytosanitary reports. But no doubt, damage has already been done. Trade
relations between the two countries have clearly worsened -- making a trade war
that much more likely. In this environment, the chances of the Bush
Administration laying the groundwork for a Free Trade Area of the Americas
stretching from Alaska to Argentina are that much more bleak.
Brazil decries beef ban February 5, 2001 By ADALID CABRERA LEMUZ,
Associated Press Brazil on Monday invited foreign experts to inspect its cattle
herds for signs of mad cow disease and insisted there's no reason for a ban on
Brazilian beef imports imposed by the United States and other countries.
Brazilian cattle feed in pastures and not on ground cattle parts that have been
blamed for spreading the disease in European countries, said Farm Defense
Secretary Luiz Carlos de Oliveira. Brazil "is willing to open its borders to
allow sanitary specialists to verify that there is not the slightest risk of
contamination," he said.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes was in
Washington to push for a suspension of the ban on imports of Brazilian beef
products. He was to meet with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and
offer data showing that Brazil is free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or
mad cow disease...
"We're concerned about the domino effect that the U.S. ban could have on
Brazilian beef imports in other markets," local news agency Agencia Estado
quoted Pratini as saying.
On Friday, Canada suspended Brazilian beef imports until the risk of mad
cow was fully assessed. The United States and Mexico quickly followed suit. The
Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the ban was a precautionary step and there
is no evidence mad cow disease has infected Brazilian cattle.
Still, the ban could hurt Brazil's exports just as the country is striving
to improve its trade balance. The United States imported some $82 million in
processed meat from Brazil last year and Canada purchased $5.5 million, the
Agriculture Ministry said. Together, the two countries account for about 10
percent of Brazil's beef exports.
Opinion (webmaster): Canada's action, quickly followed by the US and
Mexico, may have opened up a whole new era in BSE, whereby countries
deliberately trash each other's cattle industry for unrelated tariff retaliation
purposes.
TSEs are diseases believed by many scientists to occur roughly at a one in
a million rate per year in all species of mammals due to de novo mutation. Short
of knocking out the prion gene with genetic engineering, a background rate of
one per million cows of BSE is unavoidable, just like background radioactivity
from potassium-40 in rocks. This would be true even of a strictly grass and soy
fed animal -- cow cannabalism is strictly an amplification mechansim, not an
origination. The strains of BSE arising in this manner would not necessarily
resemble British BSE in their properties. The risks to humans from these
strains, if any, are unknown. However, health risks cannot be catastrophic
because CJD remains a fairly rare disease, even allowing for under-reporting,
and the fact that cattle were domesticated millenia ago.
Putting the shoe on the other foot, what if -- in a flurry of worldwide
press releases -- Pitcairn Island, with Namibia and Tajikistan joining in,
abruptly outlawed Canadian beef products because of alleged BSE risks. After
all, unlike Brazil, Canada has reported a confirmed case of BSE (December 1993
cow in Alberta imported from UK in 1987), fails to use the Prionics gold
standard surveillance test, and was a member of the Group of 70 countries on the
receiving end of British meat and bone meal exports. (Canada imported 125 tons,
the US 20 tons, Brazil zero, according to Her Majesty's Excise and Custom table
published by the Sunday London Times on 5 Feb 01 -- see below.)
Canada would no doubt be mighty annoyed at Pitcairn Island.
Food fights are different than tariffs on airline parts: the aspersions
cast linger on long after the event. Many people hear the initial story but not
the followup clarification. Garbage can circulate for years on chat rooms.
Canada could have substantive reasons for banning Brazilian beef that they have
not yet disclosed: these need to be disclosed. Yes, Canada is following the
precautionary form (extreme version): Brazil may indeed have non-zero risk --
but what country has been totally spared?
Now while most of the world frets over containment of the globalization of
both BSE and its accompaning nvCJD, other elements have long seen a profiteering
opportunity. For every country where domestic producers are hurt, there is
another country that benefits. For example, USDA's Glickman was quick to
publicly assure the British at the height of their troubles of the continuing
availability of US beef.
However, innuendo, if that is all it is, of a developing country that just
happens to have the world's largest beef herd that Mexico and the US endorsed
this week is an unwelcome escalation that serves no one. Where is this going to
end -- with the global consumer not trusting anyone's beef?
Brazil and the USA will be swapping BSE TSE Prions like two lovers swapping
spit now...
Friday, October 30, 2015
Brazil Agriculture minister to visit Saudi Arabia over BSE mad cow trade
Life | Sat May 10, 2014 2:58pm EDT Related: Health, Brazil
Brazil confirms second case of atypical mad cow disease
Brazil has confirmed a second case of atypical mad cow disease, a year
after several countries banned Brazilian beef imports when a similar case of the
disease was confirmed.
The agriculture ministry said late Friday that a lab in Weybridge, England
approved by the World Animal Health Organization confirmed it was a spontaneous
case of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease,
with no link to contaminated feed.
LAUGH OUT LOUD LOL OR LAUGH MY ASS OFF LMAO !!! that last part is a total
pipe dream, a myth...tss
now some facts about atypical BSE mad cow disease and feed. that
spontaneous myth is just that, a myth, one that keeps faltering, see why ;
Monday, May 5, 2014
Brazil BSE Mad Cow disease confirmed OIE 02/05/2014
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Brazil evaluate the implementation of health rules on animal by-products
and derived products SRM BST TSE PRION aka MAD COW DISEASE
Friday, December 07, 2012
ATYPICAL BSE BRAZIL 2010 FINALLY CONFIRMED OIE 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Scientific Report of the European Food Safety Authority on the Assessment
of the Geographical BSE Risk (GBR) of Brazil
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Another Suspect case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease investigated in Brazil
IN A NUT SHELL ;
(Adopted by the International Committee of the OIE on 23 May 2006)
11. Information published by the OIE is derived from appropriate
declarations made by the official Veterinary Services of Member Countries. The
OIE is not responsible for inaccurate publication of country disease status
based on inaccurate information or changes in epidemiological status or other
significant events that were not promptly reported to the Central Bureau,
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
OIE and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Reinforce Collaboration
Friday, April 4, 2014
China, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Morocco, Israel, South
Africa and Saudi Arabia still retain BSE-related closures
Thursday, May 30, 2013
World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has upgraded the United States'
risk classification for mad cow disease to "negligible" from "controlled", and
risk further exposing the globe to the TSE prion mad cow type disease
U.S. gets top mad-cow rating from international group and risk further
exposing the globe to the TSE prion mad cow type disease
The OIE is nothing more than a trading brokerage for the Transmissible
Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE prion disease aka mad cow type disease. Frances is
still in the midst of a mad cow disease outbreak with atypical BSE cases still
growing. mad cow disease is so bad in France, as with the USA, they stopped
testing for mad cow disease (France altogether and the USA to figures so low,
you would only detect a case of mad cow disease, only by chance).
from the inside looking out ;
Quote: Maybe familirise yourself with the OIE. The primary concern is
animal health of the world they are the animal version of the WHO. It is a long
way down from that ivory tower but here we go, until pressured by the USA
representatives a country could not export animals for 6 years after finding a
BSE/BASE positive animal so under the old rules the US would not be able to
export anywhere in the world for another 4 1/2 years. Who got the risk levels
system put in to allow some trade - your US representatives. You guys want to
change rules - OK , but you do not get special rules that only apply to the US.
As i have told you before Sand h I market all my own slaughter animals and you
know that, so don't do the whole holier than thow act.
With all due respect, it is obvious that you know little about the OIE and
how it actually works. Having been to their offices in Paris and talked
personally with the Head of the Animal Test Section, you would choke if you knew
how many lobby groups attend that office daily. There is a steady stream of paid
lobby groups that have one goal in life and that is to sway the Section Heads of
each department within the OIE to suit the needs of different jurisdictions
around the world, which curiously enough, also includes the USA and Canada.
Anyone can go there and chat with them - providing they can provide valid cause
to be let in. To say that the only goal of the OIE is animal health is actually
only part of their function. They are more than that and my discussions with Dr.
Diaz there has showed me that. But to blindly make a statement regarding what
they do when you have no idea what they actually do is like eating the skin of
the orange and not knowing what is actually under.
Interestingly you state that the US Government applied pressure (to the
OIE) I assume and that is a great example of the lobby groups doing their job.
So, at the end of the day, one can safely assume that it is the pressure applied
by certain influential lobby groups that will determine a likely outcome to an
apparent OIE directive. Man alive, isn't it great to live in a democracy wherein
the people get to make the choices and not just some "other" interested party or
group - say like........Cargill or Tyson for example?
So, one last question, question?
Who wags the tail of that dog?? And for what reason other than one that is
purely associated with trade and international agreements and greed?
And you think it is so simply explainable.
end...tss
Subject: UPDATED WHO Guidelines include tissues from Cervidae affected
with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
snip...see full text ;
Sunday, October 18, 2015
*** World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Institut Pasteur
Cooperating on animal disease and zoonosis research
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Annual report of the Scientific Network on BSE-TSE 2015 EFSA-Q-2015-00738
10 December 2015
Saturday, December 12, 2015
BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY BSE TSE PRION REPORT DECEMBER 14, 2015
*** Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE PRION UPDATE USA update
2016 ***
Saturday, July 23, 2016
*** BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY BSE TSE PRION SURVEILLANCE, TESTING,
AND SRM REMOVAL UNITED STATE OF AMERICA UPDATE JULY 2016
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
*** Atypical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE TSE Prion UPDATE JULY
2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
*** Specified Risk Materials SRMs BSE TSE Prion Program
Saturday, July 16, 2016
*** Importation of Sheep, Goats, and Certain Other Ruminants [Docket No.
APHIS-2009-0095]RIN 0579-AD10
*** WITH great disgust and concern, I report to you that the OIE, USDA,
APHIS, are working to further legalize the trading of Transmissible Spongiform
Encephalopathy TSE Pion disease around the globe.
THIS is absolutely insane. it’s USDA INC.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
USDA APHIS National Scrapie TSE Prion Eradication Program April 2016
Monthly Report Prion 2016 Tokyo Update
*** Transmission data also revealed that several scrapie prions propagate
in HuPrP-Tg mice with efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. While the
efficiency of transmission at primary passage was low, subsequent passages
resulted in a highly virulent prion disease in both Met129 and Val129 mice.
Transmission of the different scrapie isolates in these mice leads to the
emergence of prion strain phenotypes that showed similar characteristics to
those displayed by MM1 or VV2 sCJD prion. These results demonstrate that scrapie
prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link
between animal and human prions.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
SCRAPIE WS-01: Prion diseases in animals and zoonotic potential 2016
TOKYO
Prion. 10:S15-S21. 2016 ISSN: 1933-6896 printl 1933-690X
Monday, May 02, 2016
*** Zoonotic Potential of CWD Prions: An Update Prion 2016 Tokyo ***
Sunday, July 17, 2016
*** CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION GLOBAL REPORT UPDATE JULY 17 2016
Saturday, May 28, 2016
*** Infection and detection of PrPCWD in soil from CWD infected farm in
Korea Prion 2016 Tokyo ***
*** NIH awards $11 million to UTHealth researchers to study deadly CWD
prion diseases Claudio Soto, Ph.D. ***
Public Release: 29-Jun-2016
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD, Scrapie, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE,
TSE, Prion Zoonosis Science History
see history of NIH may destroy human brain collection
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
