EU Votes To Lift "Mad Cow"
Ban On British Beef Exports

BRUSSELS, Belgium —(AP)— The European Union voted last week to lift a worldwide export ban on most British beef, a milestone in the "mad cow" dispute that has pitted Britain against its European allies for nearly three years.

"The beef ban is lifted," said British Farm Minister Nick Brown. "The beef is safe to eat."

Ten of the 15 European Union agricultural ministers meeting here voted to end the ban on deboned beef, with Germany the lone holdout. France, Spain, Austria and Luxembourg abstained.

British beef exports were barred in March 1996 after Britain announced a possible link between "mad cow" disease in British cattle and a fatal brain ailment in humans called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The ban has cost the industry in Britain more than $3.3 billion and undermined confidence in beef throughout Europe.

The move to ease the ban was boosted early this month when eight out of 15 veterinary experts endorsed the plan to resume exports.

"The question now is how to get back on the world markets," said Brown, predicting an uphill struggle to restore the reputation of British beef.

Monday's decision "will tend to boost the confidence of the British consumer and presumably other consumers throughout the EU and our beef trade and our beef producers will get back to normal," Dr. John Mann, superintendent of Britain's largest meat market, Smithfields, said in London.

The EU's executive Commission now will send inspectors to Britain for a final examination of safety standards, opening the way for exports to begin early next year. No more ministerial-level votes on the issue are required.

The decision will be immediately followed by a campaign to put British beef back on the plates of consumers throughout the 15-nation EU.

"It will still be some months before the first shipments of beef actually resume and there is much work to be done to re-establish markets," said Ben Gill, president of Britain's National Farmers Union.

Brown downplayed the continued German opposition.

"Germany was not opposed to lifting the beef ban. It was opposed to lifting it now," said Brown.

The Labor government lauded the cooperation from its EU partners. "I have no quarrel how other people approached the issue," Brown said. "I got a fair hearing from each of the other 14."

After the 1996 ban, the previous Conservative government of Prime Minister John Major instigated a policy of non-cooperation with its partners that effectively paralyzed the EU for months.

Relations improved after Tony Blair became prime minister in May 1997. EU farm ministers approved a resumption of beef exports from Northern Ireland in March.

Britain exported some 270,000 tons of beef, totaling some $1 billion, in 1995.