2010년 3월 30일 RCALF USA를 비롯한 76개 단체가 톰 발색(Tom Vilsack ) 미 농무부장관 앞으로 서한을 보내 광우병 위험이 있는 30개월 이상의 쇠고기 수입을 중단하는 조치를 취하라고 요구했다는 소식입니다.

이번 서한은 지난 2월 캐나다에서 광우병이 발생하였으나, 캐나다 정부당국이 2주동안이나 이러한 사실을 대중에 공표하지 않은데  따른 것입니다.

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76 Groups Implore USDA to Keep Out Canada’s Mad Cows

출처 : http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2010/2010-03-30-092.html

WASHINGTON, DC, March 30, 2010 (ENS) – Seventy-six organizations representing tens of millions of Americans today sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking that the agency immediately strengthen U.S. border protections to keep out cows from Canada with mad cow disease.

The letter is in response to the disclosure this month of Canada’s 18th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, also known as mad cow disease, in a Canadian-born animal.

The fatal disease in cattle causes a spongy degeneration of the brain and spinal cord. Humans can be infected by eating brain or spinal cord tissue of infected animals. The infectious agent is not a bacteria or virus but misfolded proteins known as prions.

On February 25, 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the 18th case of BSE in a 72 month-old cow found dead on an Alberta farm.

The case was detected through Canada’s national BSE surveillance program but was not made public on the CFIA website for two weeks. It was finally posted on March 10, hours after a press release was distributed by the advocacy group, Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, known more simply as RCALF USA.

USDA regulations permit live Canadian cattle born after March 1, 1999, to be imported into the United States without mandatory BSE testing. This means that the infected cow would have been eligible for import into the U.S. cattle market had it been alive. The dead cow was the 11th case of BSE in a Canadian cow that met USDA’s age requirements to enter the United States.

The letter says regulations in Europe and Japan are stricter, so U.S. beef consumers are at greater risk than consumers in those countries.

The letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack states, “Mr. Secretary, above all other considerations, the health and safety of the people of the United States and United States’ livestock must come first – first before trade and first before international relations.”

R-CALF USA and the other groups who signed the letter fear that USDA’s relaxed import standards are putting not only U.S. beef consumers at risk, but also the U.S. cattle herd and the livelihoods of independent U.S. cattle producers.

USDA first relaxed U.S. safeguards against BSE in 2005, and then further relaxed those safeguards in 2007 with its over-30-month rule (OTM Rule), which facilitates the importation of Canadian cattle born after March, 1, 1999, and beef from Canadian cattle of any age. The cut-off age of 30 months was set because below this age the BSE risk is “exceedingly low,” said the agency.

At that time, Canada had detected only three BSE-positive animals born after March 1, 1999, but as of March 10, 2010, Canada has detected 11 BSE-positive animals born after that date – all of which met USDA’s age requirement for export to the United States.

“We are asking the administration to immediately reverse this reckless and unscientific approach to the dangers of BSE by withdrawing the OTM Rule that basically eliminated the United States’ only defense against the introduction of BSE into the United States – its import restrictions that prohibited the importation of cattle old enough to have been exposed to the disease,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

“We, the undersigned, urge you to take immediate action to, at the very least, restore for the United States the protections against the introduction and spread of BSE that were in place before USDA began to systematically dismantle its BSE-related border restrictions,” the letter states. “We respectfully implore you to, as a first step, immediately overturn the OTM Rule.”

Bullard said, “USDA can no longer ignore the empirical facts that show Canada’s ongoing BSE problem is far more serious than the agency predicted.”

“Unfortunately, USDA, it seems, has decided that measures other than border restrictions are adequate to protect against this always fatal disease, yet we cite page after page after page of various violations over the past several years – in both U.S. slaughter facilities and U.S. feed production facilities – that continue to put the general public at risk and our U.S. cattle herd at risk,” Bullard pointed out.

Scientists have concluded that mad cow disease is spread when cattle, who are normally herbivores, are fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal. Between 460,000 and 482,000 BSE-infected animals had entered the human food chain before controls on high-risk feed were introduced in 1989.

Although the feed controls are supposed to eliminate high-risk parts from entering the animal and human food chains, the letter lists 13 recall incidents over the past five years involving more than 144.5 million pounds of beef that violated the USDA’s regulations for preventing mad cow disease. Carcasses were sold with high-risk parts such as spinal columns or tonsils attached.

R-CALF USA warns that this evidence undercuts USDA’s assumption that BSE risk pathways to humans have been effectively eliminated.

In addition, a feed manufacturing firm was cited this year by the FDA for manufacturing and distributing adulterated animal feed to nine states: Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Washington, California, and Oregon; yet nowhere was specified exactly how long this manufacturer had been distributing the adulterated feed.

“These were just the incidents that were caught and likely represent only a fraction of the cattle that were processed without complying fully with required BSE mitigation measures. Thus, there likely are hundreds of thousands of U.S. consumers who have purchased beef that likely was not subject to U.S. mitigation measures,” the letter states.

“This ongoing, potential human exposure to BSE is unnecessary and can and should immediately be avoided by prohibiting the introduction of cattle and beef from Canada where the BSE agent is known to have recycled in that country’s feed system through at least all or part of 2004, and where it likely continued to recycle at least until Canada implemented its upgraded feed ban in mid-2007,” the groups wrote.

Bullard said, “We are hopeful that Secretary Vilsack will respond favorably to the tens of millions of Americans represented by the groups joined in the letter by immediately restoring our border restrictions to prevent the introduction of BSE from Canada.”

캐나다 “쇠고기 문제, 협상으로 풀 의향 있어”

출처 : 연합뉴스 2010/03/07 07:11
http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2010/03/05/0200000000AKR20100305158900002.HTML
 
(서울=연합뉴스) 정성호 기자 = 자국산 쇠고기를 수입하라며 한국을 세계무역기구(WTO)에 제소한 캐나다가 이 문제를 협상으로 풀 의향이 있음을 최근 밝혔다.

   공식 제소 절차인 WTO 분쟁해소패널에서 해결하는 대신 한국과 캐나다가 ‘양자 협의’를 통해 타협점을 찾아보자는 것이다. 아직은 양국이 서로 의향을 떠본 단계여서 실행으로 옮겨질지는 불투명하다.

   7일 농림수산식품부에 따르면 양국의 농식품부 차관보는 지난달 말 프랑스 파리에서 열린 ’2010 경제협력개발기구(OECD) 농업 각료회의’에서 만나 양국 모두 캐나다산 쇠고기 문제를 양자 협의를 통해 풀 의향이 있음을 확인했다.

   한국은 그간 분쟁해소패널에서 적극적으로 싸우되 가능하면 협상으로 문제를 푼다는 ‘투 트랙(two track) 전략’이 기본 입장이었다.

   양자 협의란 분쟁 당사국 간 협상으로 해법을 찾는 절차다. 현재 WTO는 분쟁해소패널을 설치해 이 사안을 다루고 있는데 이와 별개로 두 나라가 협상해 답을 찾을 의사가 있음을 확인한 것이다.

   협의와 달리 분쟁해소패널은 제 3자가 당사국들의 주장을 듣고 구속력 있는 판결을 내려주는 일종의 국제 통상(通商) 재판부다.

   이 만남은 캐나다의 요청으로 성사됐다.

   정부 관계자는 “그간에도 실무자 선에서 양자 협의를 통한 해법을 논의했지만 고위급 관료 간에 이런 의사를 확인한 것은 처음”이라고 말했다.

   다만 아직 협상을 개시하기로 합의하거나, 협의를 위해 만날 날짜를 정한 단계는 아니다. ‘탐색전’ 수준인 셈인데 양국의 고위급 관료 간에 이뤄졌다는 점에 의미를 둘 수 있는 정도다.

   관건은 양국이 각각 그리고 있는 쇠고기 수입 조건이 얼마나 비슷한 꼴이냐는 것이다. 협상은 결국 양측이 모두 수긍할 만한 교집합을 찾아가는 일인데 애초부터 너무 동떨어져 있다면 시작조차 하기 힘들기 때문이다.

   정부 내부에선 캐나다산 쇠고기에 국내 시장을 개방할 경우 미국보다 수입 조건을 강화해야 하지 않겠느냐는 분위기다.

   무엇보다 광우병(BSE.소해면상뇌증) 발병 빈도의 차이 때문이다. 미국은 광우병이 지금껏 2건 발병한 데 비해 캐나다는 작년 5월에 발생한 것까지 모두 16건에 달한다.

   정부 관계자는 “최소한 미국과 합의한 ’30개월 미만 쇠고기’란 조건보다 월령이든, 부위든 더 강화된 조건이 돼야할 것”이라며 “협상을 한다면 여론도 들어봐야 한다”고 말했다.

   일각에선 정부가 분쟁해소패널을 통한 해결보다 협상에 더 비중을 두고 있는 것 아니냐는 분석도 나온다. 분쟁해소패널에서 한국이 패소할 공산이 크다는 통상 전문가들의 지적 때문이다.

   실제 지난달 국회에서 열린 비공개 공청회에선 이런 의견이 많았던 것으로 알려졌다. 여기에 패소할 경우 광우병을 둘러싼 첫 통상 분쟁의 판결에 해당해 두고두고 판례 노릇을 할 수 있다는 우려도 있다.

   정부 관계자는 “투 트랙 전략에는 변함이 없다”며 “입장 차가 너무 크면 협상이 어려울 것”이라고 말했다.

   한편 캐나다는 지난달 1일 WTO 분쟁해소패널에 1차 서면진술서를 제출했으며 우리도 이에 맞서 우리 주장이 담긴 진술서를 5일 냈다. 양국은 앞으로 구두변론 절차를 밟게 된다.

   sisyphe@yna.co.kr