050630 US Must Assure Nervous Trade Partners Over Beef

Washington - The United States faces a tough job persuading nervous trade partners its beef is safe, but a new, independent food agency and some sophisticated PR might help, policy makers and industry experts said on Monday.

Confirmation of a second case of mad cow disease -- the first found in a native U.S. animal -- was a big blow to the Bush administration and came just as officials had started to make carefully optimistic comments about persuading major beef importers to reopen borders closed in 2003.

That was when the first case of the disease, in a dairy cow imported from Canada, prompted Japan, Korea and Taiwan to halt imports of billions of dollars of U.S. beef.

Now, while Japan publicly says it remains committed to easing its 18-month ban, experts in the country's Food Safety Commission which is reviewing U.S. mad cow safeguards say the procedure could be delayed by the second case.

Taiwan, previously the sixth-largest market for U.S. beef by value, reinstated a ban on imports over the weekend after U.S. agriculture officials confirmed a second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( BSE), or mad cow disease.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department says it sees no need to toughen existing BSE safeguards such as banning the feeding of cattle to cattle and testing some, but not all, sickly or "downer" cattle.

"This case has amply demonstrated the Agriculture Department can't both market the product and protect the public," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"They've been pushing really hard to get the markets reopened to American beef. We need an independent agency to be in charge."

Under current U.S. law, food safety monitoring, inspection and labeling functions are spread across 12 agencies in the federal government. They include the USDA which oversees meat, poultry and egg products; the Food and Drug Administration which oversees most other food products; and the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service which inspects fish.

"Food safety and inspection is divided among too many offices. You've got duplication of responsibility, you've got inconsistencies, you've got confusion," said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro (news, bio, voting record), who with Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin has sponsored a bill calling for one central agency.

"You assure our trading partners if you've got one agency ... using the best technology and the best science ... focused solely on the issue of food safety," said DeLauro.

CONSUMER TRUST

With consumers and the world's media paying increasing attention to the development and spread of BSE, any government thinking about importing beef from a country where it has occurred, like the United States, now has a much more difficult task.

"It used to be government to government. But now you're dealing with the pressure officials have on them from their consumers and whether consumers think this can be done in any way that's safe for them and their families," said one trade expert who declined to be named. "It's very much about effective communication and PR work in these various markets."

Joe O'Mara, USDA's chief agriculture negotiator under former President Bush, agreed.

"As far as these countries are concerned, it's a combination of their own politics and how their own press is reporting these cases," O'Mara, now head of trade consulting company O'Mara and Associates, told Reuters.

"Japan is still grappling with the lack of confidence that was created in their own public when it was found, around five years ago, that the government did not disclose that BSE had been discovered."

Demonstrating U.S. consumers' continued trust in American beef might help, the experts said. Consumption was largely unaffected by the 2003 discovery and despite fears of a sell-off due to the new case, cattle prices rose on Monday.

"The cattle futures market is back up today. It shows that the people who make their living by selling to consumers are getting indications that there is some reassurance and the firewalls are working," said Dave Juday, senior analyst at agricultural trade think tank World Perspectives.

"This particular animal was tested, what -- five times? That's pretty good due diligence."

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