RI plans to ban U.S. beef imports

RI plans to ban U.S. beef imports

INDONESIA: Indonesia will ban imports of American beef and beef
products starting from Thursday after the U.S. Department of
Agriculture confirmed a second case of mad cow disease there last
week, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.

Tri Satya Naipospos, the director of animal health at the
ministry, said beef product imports approved before June 30 will
still be allowed into Indonesia. She said around 500 metric tons
of U.S. beef products are currently en route to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Fred Kessel, agricultural counselor at the U.S.
Embassy in Jakarta, said the U.S. would consider such a ban
unjustified in terms of potential health risks.

"I haven't been given a rationale that makes much sense,"
Kessel said of the ban, adding that Indonesian authorities had
not yet officially confirmed it.

The U.S. beef industry is still suffering after international
trade curbs were imposed after the its first discovery of mad
cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in December 2003. Major
importers including Japan and South Korea sealed their borders to
U.S. beef fearing damage to their domestic industries and mad
cow's human variant, a fatal brain disorder called Creutzfeldt-
Jakob disease. -- AP