A SIDE letter to the US Free Trade Agreement signed by then-trade minister Mark Vaile in 2004 is the genesis of the angst felt by the meat industry over the importation of beef products from countries that have had BSE, or mad cow disease, independent member for New England Tony Windsor has said.
Mr Windsor said the BSE side letter to the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement committed Australia and the US to co-operate in international forums. The intention was to secure science-based standards for food safety and animal health-related BSE risks. In May 2007, the OIE removed the BSE-free category of countries, and replaced it with a BSE negligible risk – which Australia is in – and a BSE controlled risk category, which the US is in.
On May 28, 2007, Mr Windsor asked, in writing, then-trade minister Warren Truss: “Will the minister give the Australian beef industry an assurance that US beef will not be imported into Australia, whilst the US has BSE cases and Australia has none?”
Mr Truss replied: “Australia has the sovereign right to set its own food safety standards, including for BSE. Under Australia’s policy for the safety of imported food, imports of beef and beef products, produced on or after the date a country reports an indigenous case of BSE, are
prohibited.”
Mr Windsor said he believed this was still the case, but wanted Government confirmation.
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