BSE dilemma risks triggering trade war

Date: 10/12/1998

By Myles Neligan

EU agriculture ministers are expected to present Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler with a political dilemma next week by rejecting his latest proposal for a ban on livestock offals contaminated with BSE.

If Fischler's latest proposal does not become law by 1 January, a far stricter ban on specified risk materials (SRMs) which ministers approved in July 1997 but later postponed, will come into force by default.

This would outlaw the use of SRMs without exception and would spark off a trade war with the US by suspending 4-billion-ecu worth of pharmaceutical products made from the beef by-product tallow.

Fischler's latest, more lenient proposal would introduce a general ban on the use of SRMs within the EU from October next year, while allowing exemptions for countries with a low incidence of BSE imports of these by-products.

But chief veterinary officers from the 15 EU countries overwhelmingly rejected the proposal in a vote on it last week, and ministers look set to follow suit at their meeting which begins next Monday (14 December).

Eight negative votes at ministerial level would be enough to kill off the initiative and it seems highly unlikely to survive next week's meeting. "The ministers will reject this proposal, there is no doubt about it," said one EU diplomat. Many governments argue that the proposal does not set out sufficiently stringent controls for the countries where the removal and destruction of SRMs would be obligatory. They also object to the Commission's decision to base the proposal on the Paris-based International Office for Epizootics' draft recommendations on BSE, pointing out that these will not in fact be finalised until the middle of next year.

If, as expected, the ministers throw out the proposal, the Commission will be faced with a narrow range of options in its bid to avert another politically damaging agricultural trade war with the US.

Fischler could withdraw the original proposal altogether, although this would be seen as an embarrassing climbdown.

Alternatively, he could formally propose postponing the stricter SRM ban for a further six months, leaving a decision on the more lenient version until early next year. A qualified majority of ministers would have to vote in favour of a proposal to defer the ban again.

Finally, Fischler could invite the ministers to agree a further postponement themselves, which would require unanimity.

The Commissioner is considering his next step, but is not expected to announce his decision until just before next week's ministerial meeting. But officials insist that a solution will be found. "Standing by and allowing the first ban to come into force is something that no one wants," said a spokesman.