000847 Trade Spat Looms Over British Pork

London - An outbreak of swine fever in Britain has threatened to spark a regional trade dispute, with supermarket chain ASDA Group PLC warning it would stop selling Belgian pate if the European Union banned imports of British pork.

In a move that echoed the three-year ban on exports of British beef, the EU slapped a temporary, protective ban on shipments of live pigs and pig semen from England due to fears that swine fever might infect animals in other countries.

ASDA, which is owned by U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said it would be forced to respond if the EU made the ban permanent and extended it to include all British pork products. If that happened, the company said it would replace nine types of Belgian pate with products sourced from pork producers in the United Kingdom.

“We will make this move in support of pig farmers who, should the ban remain, will need immediate support to ensure their businesses have a future,” said ASDA trading director Mike Coupe.

ASDA singled out pate from Belgium because it could readily find British- made alternatives. Company spokeswoman Rachel Fellows acknowledged that Belgian pate is a minor sales item, describing ASDA's proposal to stop buying it as “a symbolic gesture.”

Thousands of pigs have been slaughtered at farms in eastern England since swine fever was detected in the country for the first time in 14 years. The disease is fatal to pigs, but cannot be transmitted to humans.

The French Agriculture Ministry said the European Commission's veterinary committee will meet Aug. 22 to decide whether the E.U. ban - to remain in place until Aug. 31 - should be continued or whether new measures need to be adopted.

France currently holds the EU presidency. The European Commission is the EU's administrative arm.

The commission said the curbs would apply only to exports from England and not to pigs shipped from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The temporary ban came just as British pig farmers were beginning to see a slight recovery in prices after selling for two years at a loss, said Chris Lukehurst, pig marketing manager at the Meat and Livestock Commission.

Some pig farmers said they now face the worst market conditions since the 1930s.

“People are at their wits' end,” said James Black, vice chairman of the National Pig Association. “It is difficult to know sometimes how you can give people any hope.”

In an effort to keep swine fever from spreading inside England, the government has restricted the movement of all livestock, including cows and sheep, from infected areas.

However, pig industry officials played down comparisons of swine fever with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. BSE, a fatal ailment that struck British cattle herds during the 1980s and 1990s, has been linked to a similar brain-wasting illness in humans - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - which has killed about 50 people in Britain.

The European Union banned imports of British beef in 1996. The ban was lifted in August 1999, except by France, which has consequently been taken to court by the European Commission.

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