Commissioners are set to agree a proposal which would clear the way for exports of beef from herds which have been free of BSE for more than eight years, but only in cases where details of the animals’ lives and movements have been recorded on a computerised tracing system.
Only Northern Ireland currently has a system which would meet such criteria. In 1995, about a quarter of UK beef exports to the EU and other countries originated from Northern Ireland.
The British government has been pressing the Commission to make the proposal for several months. But while it will be an important psychological step forward, the likely Commission decision to call for an easing of the ban is only the first hurdle.
The politically highly sensitive proposal would still have to be considered by EU veterinary experts and approved by agriculture ministers – and even if Northern Ireland is allowed to resume exporting beef once again, the British government faces an uphill struggle to persuade the Commission to propose beef exports from animals in the rest of the UK born after 1 August 1996.
London argues that under the so-called date-based export scheme, the risk of BSE infection is excluded because no UK cattle could have been fed mammalian meat and bone meal, believed to be the principal route of infection, after the cut-off date.
Cattle passports became mandatory in the UK in July 1996 and London argues that these will make it possible to guarantee the identity and movements of cattle slaughtered for export.