China to lift ban on Canadian beef - first ever BSE-affected country ever

A Chinese delegation led by that country's president Hu Jintao has signed on to make Canada the first BSE-affected country ever to export beef to China.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan announced the "breakthrough agreement" as one of a list of bilateral signings Thursday afternoon in Ottawa.

The agreement "provides the foundation for a staged approach to full market access for Canadian beef and beef products," the government said in a release.
The first of those stages includes access to the Chinese market for Canadian boneless beef derived from animals under 30 months of age (UTMs), and for industrial-grade Canadian beef tallow.

The Canada Beef Export Federation (CBEF) estimates the Chinese market for Canadian beef and tallow will be be worth about $110 million a year once the stage of full market access is reached.

"This is tremendous news for Canadian beef producers as access to the rapidly growing Chinese market means significant market advantage and a better bottom line for Canadian producers," Ritz said Thursday.

"Canada produces the best beef in the world and we have the consistency, safety and quality that China is looking for. What we have accomplished today recognizes our mutual interests, strong partnership and trade relationship based on sound science."

China was among several countries to shut its ports to Canadian beef and cattle in 2003 following the appearance of Canada's first domestic case of BSE in an Alberta cow. Sixteen more domestic cases later, many countries have recognized Canada's measures to keep BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) out of the food and feed supply and reopened their ports of entry to Canadian products and livestock.
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has since 2007 officially categorized Canada as a "controlled risk" country for BSE, based on its BSE surveillance, bans on the use of ruminant tissues in ruminant feed, and bans to keep specified risk materials (SRMs, the tissues known to harbour the malformed proteins causing BSE in infected animals) out of food and feed, plus its policy of destroying any BSE-infected animals and their birth herds or birth cohorts.

The controlled-risk designation allows for safe trade in all beef and cattle under specified conditions.

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