Brazil Hoping To Coerce U.S.
Into Taking Beef, Using Wheat

BUENOS AIRES, Brazil — Brazil's Agriculture Minister is quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that he expects Brazilian beef to be exported to the United States by May of next year despite animal health concerns. U.S. wheat exports are the apparent bargaining chip.

The wire service says Marcus Vincius Pratini de Moraes, Brazil's minister of agriculture, told reporters that he hopes to have a quota for the U.S. by April or May of 2000.

Brazilian beef is banned from the U.S. market because of the South American country's failure to comply with sanitary standards. Cattle in two of Brazil's states, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarini, are being checked by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists for hoof and mouth disease.

Pratini de Moraes told U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman in late August that Brazil would like to accelerate the cattle clearance procedure by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The U.S. ended a 66-year ban on Argentine beef in May 1997, after that country was declared free of hoof and mouth disease.

Brazil has the largest cattle herd in the world with 170 million head. Argentina has 50 million cattle. Brazilian beef exports are expected to be about $800 million this year after the country's currency devaluation in January improved export profits for ranchers.

Glickman says it appears that Brazil is trying to tie the export of beef to the U.S. to Brazil's importation of U.S. wheat.

Brazil bars importation of U.S. soft red winter wheat and soft red spring wheat, citing phytosanitary standards.

"What I have told the Brazilian ambassador in the U.S. is that is a very dangerous road to go down," Glickman says, "where you tie a concern over a legitimate health safety measure on one product to an unrelated trade issue on the other product."

The comments came following a Cairns Group international trade meeting in August. The Cairns Group is trying to establish a common agricultural policy among its 15 member nations prior to the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in November, in Seattle.

The Cairns Group consists of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.