Top vet upset with EU

NAMIBIA should become more self-confident and push the European Union more to achieve exports of bone-in-meat to its member states, a local industry expert says.

Dr Otto Huebschle, the Director of Veterinary Services, said Namibia complied with all EU criteria to export such meat, but the EU “does not trust us, because we are an African country.” Speaking at a meat forum last Tuesday, which was attended by 25 people, Huebschle said the EU did not follow its own regulations, which mainly centre around precautions against food-and-mouth disease (FMD), as the recent outbreak in Britain showed.”They did not keep a buffer and surveillance zone for six weeks after the initial outbreak and five weeks alter FMD broke out again.African countries which export (deboned) meat to the EU must keep the zones for a period of six months – this is unfair,” the Director said.Namibia has an annual quota of 11 000 tonnes of deboned beef to the EU, but for several years it has been seeking approval to export beef on the bone.Huebschle further complained about the “patronising attitude” of EU health inspectors towards developing countries.The last outbreak of FMD in Namibia was in 1963 but still the EU insisted on the above stringent measures for Africa, while EU member state Britain just recently violated EU regulations for FMD.Another problem Namibia will face soon is that the EU wants livestock to have two ear tags, one in each ear, to be attached 20 days after birth.”Branding is regarded as a cruel method by the EU,” Huebschle explained.”We all know how easy it is to remove tags and put in different ones, branding works much better for Namibia.”Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) last week issued a stern warning to African countries negotiating economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the Union, saying that if negotiations were not completed by the end of the year, bilateral trade between those countries and the EU would revert to the General System of Preferences (GSP), a more onerous trading regime.This would result in countries losing the preferential terms they have enjoyed under the Cotonou agreement.The EU is negotiating EPAs with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to replace the Cotonou agreement by January 1 next year.The Cotonou agreement has to be replaced because it is incompatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.Speaking at a meat forum last Tuesday, which was attended by 25 people, Huebschle said the EU did not follow its own regulations, which mainly centre around precautions against food-and-mouth disease (FMD), as the recent outbreak in Britain showed.”They did not keep a buffer and surveillance zone for six weeks after the initial outbreak and five weeks alter FMD broke out again.African countries which export (deboned) meat to the EU must keep the zones for a period of six months – this is unfair,” the Director said.Namibia has an annual quota of 11 000 tonnes of deboned beef to the EU, but for several years it has been seeking approval to export beef on the bone.Huebschle further complained about the “patronising attitude” of EU health inspectors towards developing countries.The last outbreak of FMD in Namibia was in 1963 but still the EU insisted on the above stringent measures for Africa, while EU member state Britain just recently violated EU regulations for FMD.Another problem Namibia will face soon is that the EU wants livestock to have two ear tags, one in each ear, to be attached 20 days after birth.”Branding is regarded as a cruel method by the EU,” Huebschle explained.”We all know how easy it is to remove tags and put in different ones, branding works much better for Namibia.”Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) last week issued a stern warning to African countries negotiating economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the Union, saying that if negotiations were not completed by the end of the year, bilateral trade between those countries and the EU would revert to the General System of Preferences (GSP), a more onerous trading regime.This would result in countries losing the preferential terms they have enjoyed under the Cotonou agreement.The EU is negotiating EPAs with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to replace the Cotonou agreement by January 1 next year.The Cotonou agreement has to be replaced because it is incompatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.