Argentine Beef Flow To Britain Doubtful

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31621, 6 March 1968, Page 17

Argentine Beef Flow To Britain Doubtful

( N.Z. P. A .-Reuter—Copy rig ht)

BUENOS AIRES, March 5.

The flow of Argentine chilled beef to the United Kingdom may not be resumed for some time, despite the lifting of a British ban on the import of meat, other than lamb or mutton, from South America.

Meat trade sources in Buenos Aires say that the present shortage of steers on the Argentine market, combined with unfavourable trading conditio n s at London’s Smithfield Market, have made meat processing firms reluctant to resume shipments in the near future.

The British Minister of Agriculture (Mr Fred Peart) yesterday announced that imports of all meat, except mutton and lamb, from Argentina and other countries where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic, could be resumed on April 15. Britain blamed Argentine lamb for its recent costly epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease. An official report said the epidemic began in an area of Shropshire where lamb from Argentina had been distributed.

The Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr Nicanor Costa Mendez) told reporters last night that his Government could not accept the British ban on mutton and lamb, and would “study the action to be taken.”

The Minister, however, added that he appreciated Britain’s decision to allow imports of beef again. Trade sources in Argentina say the circumstantial evidence invoked to link the outbreak of the disease in Britain with Argentine lamb was too flimsy. At the same time, they admitted the possibility of Argentine lamb exports being infected with the foot-and-mouth disease virus because, they said, some

sheep breeders did not vaccinate their stock. All cattle stocks were vaccinated. An Argentinian official last night expressed surprise at the British allegation. He said the farm from which the lamb distributed in Shropshire had been exported used all the sanitary controls demanded by law, and was regularly inspected by Government officials.

The plant was also regularly inspected by officials from the British Embassy in Argentina, who had never found any fault with it, he added. Informed sources in London say the British Government hopes that the compromise announcement by Mr Peart will avert the threat of trade reprisals from Argentina.

The ban on Argentine lamb will deprive Argentina of exports which had previously been running at about £3m a year. But the relaxation of other restrictions next April will open the way to a resumption of Argentina’s beef exports to Britain, which are worth more than seven times as much.

From Britain’s point of view, the ban on mutton and lamb imports will have little impact, because by far the greater part of such imports, totalling over £69m last year.

come from Australia and New Zealand.

These are among eight countries which have not been affected by the meat import ban. The others are Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Finland, and the United States.

Mr Joseph Godber, the Opposition Conservative Party’s spokesman on agriculture, said in Parliament there was very considerable concern about the announcement that beef imports would be resumed.

He asked if the veterinary mission Mr Peart said Britain was sending to South America would report back before April 15, the date when the ban is due to be lifted, and whether the ban would be continued if the mission produced a report on which the Minister was not fully satisfied.

Mr Peart’s announcement has met with hostility from the National Farmers’ Union, whose president (Mr George Williams) said: “It is very difficult to believe you can isolate this disease in one type of meat and not in another. Common sense should dictate that all types of meat should be banned from countries where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic until the matter is cleared up.”