010574 U.S. Eases Ban on European Meat

Washington - Just in time for the barbecue season, the United States is reopening its doors to Denmark's popular baby back pork ribs.

The Bush administration eased the ban on European pork imports that was imposed two months ago after the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Restrictions were lifted for Denmark and nine other members of the European Union that have been free of the disease. Denmark was the ban's biggest victim because the United States is one of the largest markets for its pork industry.

Imports of European beef and lamb have also been banned because of concerns about mad cow disease, which is linked to a fatal illness in humans. Foot-and-mouth disease is harmless to people but spreads quickly through livestock and wildlife.

Canada relaxed its restrictions a week ago.

The U.S. ban on pork will remain in place for countries where cases of the disease have been confirmed: the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Greece.

“This in no way lessens our efforts at prevention,” Bobby Acord, associate administrator for the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said Friday. “We want to remain vigilant. We will continue our efforts to increase our personnel, to tighten our regulatory enforcement.”

USDA plans to increase inspections at airports to prevent travelers from bringing in the virus, which is common throughout much of the world. The department is hiring hundreds of new inspectors and doubling its teams of dogs that sniff luggage for contraband food.

Bush also signed the Animal Disease Risk Assessment, Prevention and Control Act of 2001, which creates a commission of agriculture, health and safety officials to ensure that the government is doing everything it can to keep mad cow and foot-and-mouth diseases out of the country.

The United States has been free of foot-and-mouth disease since 1929.

Friday's action will allow Danish pork now being held in quarantine to begin moving to U.S. stores and restaurants, Acord said.

“There is actually quite a bit from my understanding. The cold storage warehouses are pretty full,” he said, adding that he didn't know the volume of product.

Besides Denmark, the countries now allowed to ship pork to the United States are Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

The U.S. pork industry reacted cautiously to USDA's action.

“We trust that USDA has carefully evaluated the information presented by those ten EU members that have not had a confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease and can unequivocally assure the American people that the large volume of pork products kept in U.S. storage” are free of disease, said Barb Determan, president of the National Pork Producers Council.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., opposes the administration's decision, said spokesman Jay Carson. Daschle, soon to be the Senate majority leader, has called for stopping all meat and livestock imports.

“It's more important for USDA to make sure that American producers are protected than to ease restrictions before we make sure that this is contained, before we really know how easily it can spread, and where it can come from,” Carson said.

The moratorium Daschle wants is not justified by science, USDA officials say.

Baby back ribs were developed by the Danish livestock industry about 20 years ago as producers sought a market for what was then considered scrap. About half the baby back ribs sold in the United States are from Danish farms.

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