EU declares most British beef fit for export

Two weeks after Northern Ireland beef returned to world markets and two years and three months after the EU imposed a ban on the export of UK beef, the EU Commission has declared the bulk of British beef fit for export.

The decision yesterday, only the first step in a return to the market, came as a welcome relief to the British presidency in the days before its Cardiff summit, but the likelihood of getting the export ban finally lifted before the autumn is seen as remote.

The Commission unanimously endorsed a date-based scheme proposed by the British which would allow the export of deboned beef from animals that are not the offspring of BSE-infected cattle and are older than six months but born after August 1st, 1996.

That is the date at which the ban on the use of meat and bone meal became effective and from which, therefore, no animal should have been fed contaminated meal. The prohibition on the export of meat from animals under six months will ensure that the very limited possibility of maternal transmission of BSE to calves can be prevented.

Because the vast bulk of beef sold for meat is from young animals, full approval of the scheme will effectively give Britain full access to world markets.

But the recommendation has yet to be approved at a political level - this can in theory be done either at the EU's Standing Veterinary Committee (SVC) which brings together chief veterinary officers and which meets on Friday, or at a Farm Council on June 22nd. Irish sources were saying last night they have yet to receive the documentation for the SVC meeting and that they expected the meeting to look for more time to consider the details of the proposal.

Few here imagine the decision will be agreed quickly, particularly as the main opposition is likely to come from Germany where a decision could prove electorally difficult. Like anything else controversial these days it will probably be long-fingered, possibly by being sent to a working group.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Franz Fischler, told journalists yesterday he expected it would be well into the autumn before trade would resume. But even the Commission's first step will allow the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to claim to the Cardiff summit that they have reached the beginning of the end of the crisis.

Political clearance will be followed by rigorous inspections from the Commission services to see that the special slaughtering facilities and records system, effectively passports for each animal, required by the new regulation are in place.

A spokesman for the British Department of Agriculture said the sooner normal trading could return to the beef market the better. While he acknowledged the validity of the scientific rationale behind the date-based scheme, he warned that the experience of the Northern Ireland producers was that the devil was in the implementation detail.

PA reports: The BSE debacle played a significant role in damaging the last British government led by Mr John Major.

The Conservative government first raised the issue by formally confirming a link between BSE in cows and its human derivative, new variant CJD. However, in the face of an EU world-wide export ban prompted by widespread consumer alarm, Mr Major was hapless in fighting Britain's corner.

Amid Tory jeers in the Commons yesterday, Mr Blair said the lifting of the EU beef export ban in relation to Northern Ireland had been "an important first step".

He added: "The Commission decision today is a very important further step, it applies to the whole of the UK. There's still a long way to go - I counsel caution until we are through all the various stages of the European negotiation."

Last night, British farmer leaders reacted with pleasure to the decision in Brussels. The president of the National Farmers' Union, Mr Ben Gill, said: "The momentum must not be lost. We are confident the huge weight which has burdened the farming community for more than two years will soon be removed. We are hopeful that the ban will be lifted at the very latest by the autumn."