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Send in the Clowns..........

Mike

Well-known member
Today 4/25/2006 2:19:00 PM

USDA Plans To Send Team To China In May On Beef Trade



WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning to send a high-level delegation to Beijing in mid-May to try to nail down the terms of how China will ease its ban on U.S. beef, USDA officials said this week.



China agreed on April 11 to begin buying U.S. beef, but that announcement - delivered by the U.S. Commerce Department - was devoid of any details on what cuts of beef China will accept and when imports will resume.



China, along with most Asian countries, shut its borders to U.S. beef in December 2003 in response to the first discovery of "mad cow" disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the U.S.



Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, who led a trade delegation to the U.S. earlier this month, told reporters there would be conditions put on a resumption of beef imports.



Wu did not specify what those conditions would be, but USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said China should place no cattle-age restriction on U.S. beef. If China agreed, that would set it apart from Hong Kong - which resumed importing U.S. beef in December - but only so long as the beef comes from cattle under 30 months old.



Johanns, speaking to reporters on April 11 - the day China generally agreed to start buying U.S. beef again - said: "We have to work out exactly what we're going to be shipping (to China) and that kind of thing. The international standards are now not tied to (cattle)age."



Source: Bill Tomson; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-646-0088;
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
I don't understand how Johanns can say, "The international standards are now not tied to (cattle)age" on April 11, and then on April 26 comes the announcement; "Imports to South Korea will be limited to boneless meat from cattle younger than 30 months old." :shock:

Who wants to bet that comment is an effort to "soften up the defenses" for opening up to Canadian OTM?

Mike, I caught that one.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
I don't understand how Johanns can say, "The international standards are now not tied to (cattle)age" on April 11, and then on April 26 comes the announcement; "Imports to South Korea will be limited to boneless meat from cattle younger than 30 months old." :shock:

Who wants to bet that comment is an effort to "soften up the defenses" for opening up to Canadian OTM?

Mike, I caught that one.

Although not quite as obvious as the spelling of "Santa Gertrubis", it was a clear directorate of things to come.

I was reading last night about the propaganda machine that the USDA has in place concerning press releases, films (yes, they have their own film studio for little snippets of info) on anything from genetically modified foods to food stamps to help the poor.

It is clearly an agency out of control and out of touch with it's originally intended duties.
 

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