This article is from page 52 of the 2007-08-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 52 JPG
THE European Ombudsman, Ni- kiforus Diamandouras, last week agreed to examine complaints made by the Fairness for Farmers in Eu- rope (FFE) in relation to the impor- tation of Brazilian beef.
The FFE complaint alleges that the European Commission failed to ban beef imports into the European Un- ion by Brazil, notwithstanding evi- dence that such imports pose a risk to human and animal health.
‘Although this is a positive step, it should be borne in mind that it is also just a first step in a long process,” said Malcolm Thompson, President
of the ICSA.
Meanwhile, the IFA this week re- peated its call for a complete ban on Brazilian beef. IFA National Live- stock Chairman, John Bryan, called on the EU Commission to imme- diately impose a ban on Brazilian beef imports as they fail to meet EU standards in the critical area of resi- due testing and food safety.
“If European consumers were aware of the full extent of the failure of Brazilian beef to meet EU standards on residue testing, veterinary medi- cines control and associated food safety issues, they would be horrified and demand full accountability from Commissioner Kyprianou and the
EU Commission,” he said.
“I am horrified to see that beef which fails to meet proper standards is accepted by the EU from Brazil, Whereas it would automatically be skipped in Ireland by the vets and controls in our meat plants”.
The IFA Munster Vice President, Sean O’Leary, welcomed the com- mitment from Brian Crowley MEP, that he and his fellow Fianna Fail MEPs will put forward a joint request this week to the European Commis- sion, that Brazil should be given one month to get their meat traceability standards up to the equivalent EU- required standards, or face an out- right ban by the EU.
Mr. Crowley gave the commitment to Munster IFA Officers at a meeting with them last week in Cork, which was specially convened on the issue.
Crowley was told by the IFA Of- ficers that they were appalled by the double-standards approach that is currently being adopted by Minis- ter for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan TD, when she was prepared to act immediately to ban the import of all fresh meat from the UK because of one outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, yet she can see no problem with continuing to import beef from Brazil, where the disease 1s rampant, and traceability on livestock is non- econ