03/15/07 U.S. Is Controlled Risk

U.S. is Controlled Risk. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The U.S. has won preliminary "controlled risk" BSE status from the international group that sets animal health standards - a move that could help the U.S. in its long struggle to reopen key beef markets. The Organization of International Epizootics - or OIE - is expected to make a final decision on U.S. BSE status in May - but the U.S. will likely use the preliminary OIE designation to continue to pressure South Korea and others to fully reopen their markets to U.S. beef. National Cattlemen's Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Jay Truitt says the OIE designation helps the U.S. move away from the - he said, she said - fights with its key beef trading partners. TRUITT: If countries are really going to be a part of the world community they're going to have to actually begin to accept some of these international standards for science based trade and hopefully it will be the tipping point in a number of cases. Truitt says that includes Japan and South Korea. TRUITT: Obviously the first places we intend to take a document like this is to Korea and subsequently to Japan but we can apply these same kinds of conditions in virtually every marketplace we're looking to export beef. Truitt says even China and Russia have started to recognize the importance of scientific trading standards. He argues Japan and Korea will stand out if they don't fit in with the rest of the international community. He notes Japan's 21-month and younger beef standard as an example. TRUITT: It's our understanding that OIE is going to utilize the 30-month time frame and that's the window of margin of safety that they've decided to go with. That tends to agree with what we believed all along as well, and so countries: and Japan being the clearest example that have designated a different month are going to have some explaining to do if they're going to utilize the time period like that into the future. And as long as the U.S. is trying to prevent BSE with is ban on ruminant feed - removal of high or specified risk material and monitoring - then Truitt says South Korea's issue with tiny bone chips should also go away. He says it's his industry's hope science will finally trump politics. Meantime - Truitt says USDA is not extending the comment period that ended Monday for a pending rule to expand cattle and beef trade with Canada to animals older than 30-months. But it will still take several more months to finalize the new rule. The OIE is expected to designate both nations as "controlled risk" countries for BSE. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.