The United States announcement of the lifting of the embargo on the import of beef from France was welcomed by the European Commission on Friday 13 January.
For the EU, this decision is a further step towards re-opening a market that has been closed since the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis of the 1990s.
“Following similar decisions with Ireland, Lithuania and the Netherlands, the Commission welcomes the decision by the United States to allow the import of beef from France. This demonstrates that the efforts made by the Union to eradicate BSE from its territory have borne fruit”, says a statement signed by the trade, agriculture and health commissioners. The Commission is continuing to work with all stakeholders to ensure that all member states will, in the near future, be able to enjoy the same access to the US market.
French beef producers will be able to re-start exporting their products as soon as France has provided the American agency with a list of certified farms.
Very few cases of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (including BSE among cattle) were found in the EU in 2015, and none found their way into the food chain, states the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in its first summary report on this issue, published on 1 December of last year (previously reporting was done by the Commission). In all, five cases of BSE were recorded in the EU from some 1.4 million animals tested, 641 cases of scrapie were found (from 319,638 tests) among sheep and 1,052 cases (from 135,857 tests) among goats. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)