Brazil awaits permission to resume beef exports to China

In a statement made today (Jun 4), Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina said the Brazilian government has submitted to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) the documents requested to reverse the temporary suspension of beef exports to China. The interruption had been adopted by Brazil in compliance with a protocol signed in 2015 by the two nations.

The temporary suspension of sanitary certificates for beef exports to China was confirmed yesterday (3) by the ministry after a case of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was reported in Mato Grosso state.

“These are temporary suspensions just for the examination of the documents turned in [by the Brazilian government]. OIE has closed the case. It was opened and closed with no complementary requests. It’s perfectly normal, and we’re waiting for China to ask us in the coming days to end the suspension started by Brazil,” the minister said today (4) after arriving at the Mines and Energy Ministry for a meeting.

The disease was notified last Friday (May 31), and was reported to be an isolated event with no risks posed to the population.

The situation concerning trade between the two countries is still faring well despite the incident, the minister said. “There’s nothing. It’s just something common that took place in several countries. This shows that Brazil’s inspection services are still operational. It’d be strange, rather, if nothing had ever happened.”

Tereza Cristina noted that last year over 20 countries had cases similar to this one, which is considered atypical. “It’s not contagious and there’s no risk to anyone. It’s something normal that shows the transparency and governance of inspection services,” she declared.

“The only country that demands this temporary suspension in China. Therefore, we’ll talk about the new protocol in the future,” she added, not mentioning dates. “I can’t say [when exports will be resumed] because the problem now is in China’s hands, not Brazil’s. What matters is that Brazil and China are members of the OIE, which opened the case Friday [to look into the matter] and closed yesterday, settling the issue,” she added.

The disease

A brain disease in adult cattle, the mad cow disease is caused by altered proteins and has no cure or treatment. Late in the 90s, some European countries faced an outbreak of cases of the illness as other animals consumed processed feed made of cattle affected by the disease.