Australia (+ Japan, S Korea, Singapore, Taiwan )bans US beef products

[rooboy]

Australia today imposed a temporary ban on American beef products because of a suspected mad cow disease outbreak in the US.

Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said the federal government had "decided to temporarily hold beef products imported from the US at the border while it gets more information".

The action follows the US reporting its first suspected case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in a single cow in the Pacific state of Washington.

Mr Truss said Australia's agriculture counsellor in Washington was liaising with US Agriculture Department officials over the diagnosis and the results of further tests to be carried out at a British laboratory.

The ban will have little practical effect. Mr Truss said Australia has imported small quantities of fresh beef from the US in the past for specialist restaurants, but no recent imports had taken place because the businesses were no longer operating.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/24/1072239718993.html

Link to story on Japan, S Korea, Singapore, Taiwan :

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/24/1072239712874.html

[NNN0LHI]

1. Russia and S. Africa now too

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24633127.htm

S.Africa bans U.S. beef imports on mad cow fears

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24641150.htm

RUSSIA SUSPENDS IMPORTS OF U.S. BEEF -INTERFAX QUOTES AGRICULTUR

[Gman]

2. There has been an enormous breach of trust between Bush

and the cattlemen. Once the truth is known about things like why the USDA has been refusing to give UPI its records on MCD testing since July (thanks, Don), this may well have a huge impact on cattle producing states. How can the cattlemen and rural America trust Bush now?

Under Clinton the USDA was anal retentive about keeping MCD out of the US and did a pretty good job. I'm sure there's been a ton of regulations that have been revised or done away with that have let this happen.