WHY should anyone care what the OIE, a relatively obscure body that few knew about before the BSE crisis, has to say about beef safety?
Because the OIE’s new international animal health regulations support Canada’s assertion that its beef is safe. That, in turn, will help reopen markets.
OIE, the Organization International des Epizooties, is better known these days as the World Organization for Animal Health. It comprises a group of scientists and veterinarians from 167 countries that last week changed the recommended standards governing animal diseases and their impact on trade.
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The OIE has, as one mandate, the goal to prevent countries from using animal disease to unnecessarily stop trade. Though its recent success in that regard is limited, as Canadians can attest, OIE regulations are nevertheless considered a health benchmark in animal trade and are regularly used by the World Trade Organization in matters involving animal disease.
Last week the OIE stated that boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months can be traded without risk to consumers. Other cuts, including some from animals older than 30 months, can be traded if certain safeguards are in place: animals are inspected pre- and post-slaughter; specified risk materials is removed; and approved slaughter methods are used.
Canada meets those conditions.
As well, new OIE guidelines divide countries into three categories: negligible risk without mitigating measures; negligible risk with mitigating measures; and undetermined risk.
Canada fits into the second category, as does the United States.
The guidelines reinforce industry assertions that cattle and beef trade disputes should be resolved using science rather than politics. They simplify the way countries are judged to be at risk of BSE so the focus is on the safety of beef exports rather than on the number of cases within a country’s borders.
The new guidelines should make it more politically palatable for the U.S. to defend the continued import of Canadian beef, as it will be called upon to do in a few short weeks.
They support the science behind beef safety, belying R-CALF’s assertions that Canadian beef – and possibly American beef as well – poses a health risk to consumers.
The guidelines also call into question the scientific basis for Japan’s demands for beef from cattle younger than 20 months, which could prove to be a valuable bargaining chip. Failure of countries to comply with OIE guidelines could result in WTO sanctions.
Cracks are opening in the wall that has stymied international beef and cattle trade for the past 25 months.
That will stand Canada in good stead, because it now has the credibility of the OIE behind its assertions of beef safety.
