Major U.S. meat trade associations have asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to publish a comprehensive rule on imports of beef from countries with a history of BSE, arguing that it could lead to increased trade opportunities for U.S. beef products. Beef trade negotiations with the European Union are currently compromised by USDA's insistence on restricting imports from EU member-states even though most of those countries now have the same BSE risk classification status as the United States, say the CEOs of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, U.S. Meat Export Federation, American Meat Institute and the National Meat Association in a letter sent June 7 to Vilsack.
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