Friday, November 1, 2013
Senator Chuck Grassley made the following comment after U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service released a final comprehensive rule on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The rule had been in the works for several years, but stalled within various agencies of the federal government.
During the delay in publishing a final rule, a number of countries placed non-science based restrictions on U.S. beef imports. For example, some countries don't allow U.S. beef over 30 months old into their country. Some of these nations use the fact that the United States had not formally adopted a comprehensive BSE rule to justify their own unfair trade barriers. In February 2012, Grassley led a bipartisan group of senators pressing the administration to issue the comprehensive BSE rule.
Here's Grassley's comment on the final rule.
"Beef producers have been waiting years for the Department of Agriculture to issue the BSE comprehensive rule. By having this rule in place, the United States can now show leadership around the world and give the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Agriculture a stronger position to press other nations to follow the World Organization for Animal Health's guidelines and adopt science-based BSE policies. When nations base their decisions on sound science, more markets will be expanded or opened to U.S. beef."
