Paraguay Beef Suspension Not Upheld

USDA has allowed a 25-year suspension to expire on the import of fresh and frozen beef from Paraguay into the US market. This controversial decision has prompted Congress to take action in protecting the integrity of the US beef market. R-CALF United Stock Growers of America CEO. Bill Bullard.

“Now Paraguay is a country that's had extreme difficulty in combating the most contagious disease known to cloven-footed animals like cattle. And that's, of course, is what enough disease and the United States has not done an on site visit of Paraguay to determine the relative safety of importing Paraguay and beef for nine years. The last time they did that was back in 2000. And I think it was 11. And they haven't even done a risk assessments for five years. So they're using outdated information and haven't traveled back to Paraguay to determine the risk. And nevertheless, they've now proposed that we're going to open the borders.”

The congressional action was that of Senators John Tester of Montana Democrat and Mike Rounds of South Dakota Republican who introduced legislation to suspend the imports and further require USDA to put together a working group to fully evaluate the threat that such imports would have on US food safety and animal health. However, Congress did not pass that bill before the suspension expired on December 14.