Taiwan plans to ban imports of ground beef and offal from countries such as Canada affected by BSE.
Its legislature will amend the Food Sanitation Act to ban imports for 10 years from the outbreak date. It will also restrict U.S. beef imports to products made from cattle younger than 30 months.
Since 2007, Canada has been able to ship only boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months.
John Masswohl, director of governmental and international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said the industry is “not very happy” with proposed import rules, feeling it had made good progress on resolving technical issues.
Taiwan was eyed by exporters as a high value market for premium cuts.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also unhappy with the latest development, saying Taiwan’s amendments “do not have a basis in science and constitute a unilateral violation” of the two countries’ agreement.
“To suggest that there are safety concerns related to U.S. beef is outrageous,” Gregg Doud, chief economist with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said in a news release.
The U.S. had an agreement in place with Taiwan not to ship U.S. beef from animals older than 30 months.
