News Release
David
Byrne
December 24, 2003
Statement by David Byrne, European
Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, on US Beef Imports to the European
Union
"Following yesterday’s announcement
of a case of BSE being detected in the US state of Washington, I can confirm that
the European Union already has in place a number of protective measures to ensure
that bovine material at a risk of carrying BSE is not imported into the EU. These
measures, in place since October 1999, are a result of a scientific risk assessment
procedure, which identified the US as a country at risk of BSE outbreak. Such
risks assessments have been carried out for a number of major exporters and have
been shown to be correct in predicting the existence of BSE in countries that
previously had no native cases, i.e., Canada and Japan."
