Brussels, 20/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 October, the European Commission hailed Canada's decision to re-open its market to imports of beef from 19 EU member states.
This decision “will provide a welcome boost to Europe's beef producers and exporters, particularly as it comes at a time when farmers across the EU are going through a particularly difficult period”, said European commissioners Vytenis Andriukaitis (health and food safety), Cecilia Malmström (trade) and Phil Hogan (agriculture) in a statement. “By re-authorising 19 member states at once, Canada recognises that the EU functions as a single entity with uniform and harmonised rules and standards, where enforcement is overseen by the European Commission. This is an important development and will further improve the trade relations with Canada on sanitary and phytosanitary issues”, the commissioners' statement continues. The Commission promises to continue working with the Canadian authorities to re-establish the beef trade of the member states that still do not have access to the Canadian market.
The Canadian market has been closed to all EU beef, including deboned beef, since 1996 when Canada introduced import restrictions on the meat of ruminants on the basis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) concerns. The 19 EU member states that have now been authorised to resume exports are the same that had access to the Canadian market before the BSE ban came into force - Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The work preceding this re-opening was conducted as part of the EU-Canada veterinary agreement that was set up in 1998 and the Canadian assessment of the EU meat inspection system that included an audit of four EU member states.
Canada's recognition of the EU as a single entity in this issue sends “an important signal” to other EU trading partners that continue to maintain restrictive measures against EU beef exports, the Commission concludes. Furthermore, it urges these countries to “fully adopt recognised international standards”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)