TRADE-BRAZIL: Mad Cow, Foot-and-Mouth Hurt Markets and Strain Ties

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 2 2001 (IPS) - Mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth have become a source of tension in international relations, above and beyond their impact on the global market for meat.

Just as the dispute between Brazil and Canada over mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was being left behind, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Britain began to give rise to suspicions that the disease was brought in from the developing South.

British stockbreeders asked their government to suspend purchases of beef from outside the European Union (EU), charging that the virus which has dealt yet another blow to its stockbreeders, already devastated by BSE, came from outside the region, the London daily The Times reported Wednesday.

Brazil would be hit hardest by such a measure, as it provides 13 percent of Britain’s beef imports, followed by Argentina, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, other countries mentioned in the British stockbreeders’ petition.

But health authorities in Brazil, as well as Enio Marques, executive director of the Brazilian Association of the Meat Exporting Industry, stress that there is no risk that Brazilian beef transmitted the virus.

Marques, who is also an expert in animal health, underlined that Brazil only exported processed beef, or boneless beef frozen at below two degrees celsius, conditions in which the FMD virus cannot survive.

Uruguay, meanwhile, was reinstated on the International Epizootics Office’s (OIE) list of countries free of FMD without vaccination in late January.

The recent outbreak of FMD in Britain has already led several European countries to slaughter tens of thousands of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, for fear of contamination.

In Britain, the rural areas where FMD has broken out have been isolated, schools temporarily closed, and sports events cancelled.

The Brazilian government, in the meantime, is trying to convince the EU that this country presents no risk of BSE infection either, as concluded by a technical fact-finding mission sent here by Canada, the United States and Mexico, partners in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (NAFTA).

On Feb 23, the three members of NAFTA lifted a ban on imports of Brazilian beef that had been implemented by Canada on Feb 2 and automatically adopted by its two partners.

The ban was adopted due to Brazil’s failure to provide all of the paperwork requested by Ottawa since 1998, mainly involving cattle imported from the EU, which could conceivably have been infected with BSE.

The measure was lifted after a NAFTA technical mission was sent to Brazil in the wake of an outcry by Brazilians and even protests by Canadian scientists against what they called an “unfounded” ban.

But the incident could have a silver lining, since it led to a confirmation of the approval of Brazil’s beef by the demanding U.S., Canadian and Mexican animal health agencies, said Agriculture Minister Marcus Pratini de Moraes.

He added that the mission’s report that Brazilian beef was indeed free of BSE would boost exports.

Brasilia sent a delegation to Brussels to lobby the EU to list Brazil as a country that poses no risk of BSE. For now, Brazilian livestock, which has had no reported case of the disease, is considered to face only a hypothetical chance of contamination.

But distrust is the rule of thumb in the meat business, and it has also affected the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) trade bloc comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as the talks on the creation of the continentwide Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

The Canadian ban increased Brazil’s resistance to the FTAA, as it came on top of the two countries’ dispute over subsidies for their medium-sized jet industries.

The closing of Brazil’s border to Argentine cattle, beef on bone and semen last week also triggered a row between the two biggest partners of Mercosur, which compete for the same international markets for beef.

Farm officials in Argentina say Brazil, Bolivia – a Mercosur associate member – and Paraguay pose a risk of FMD that threatens Argentina’s exports, since animal health controls in those neighbouring countries are much more lax.

Rural associations in Argentina, meanwhile, confirmed reports of FMD outbreaks, which the government has not publicly acknowledged. Officials did announce, however, that they were preparing to create “an area free of FMD where vaccination is practiced.”

Due to the reintroduction of vaccination in parts of Argentina, the OIE removed the country from its list of FMD-free countries where vaccination is not practiced, to which it had been upgraded in May 2000.

FMD and BSE are also shaking the international market for beef, which does some 10 billion dollars in trade a year.

The 30 percent reduction in beef consumption in the EU continues to frustrate exporters from other continents, which are keen to gain ground in the huge market in the face of the ruin of Europe’s stockbreeders.

However, they are making headway in other markets which have stopped importing European beef due to fears of BSE. Brazil’s beef exports, for example, were 80 percent up in January, compared to the same month of 2000.

The Middle East doubled its purchases, making it the top buyer for Brazilian beef. Exporters are now setting their sights on eastern Europe.