Mad Cow A Complex Legal Issue
By Shea Van Hoy
The Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE -- The former lead counsel to the U.S. Department of Agriculture told University of Arkansas students the legal issues surrounding mad-cow disease are about as complex as the illness itself.
Nancy Bryson spoke to about 40 people at the Leflar Law Center and detailed behind-the-scenes legal work that helped ease public fear about mad-cow disease, restore cattle imports from Canada and move closer to beef-trade resumption with Japan. Trade restrictions have hampered business for Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat company.
Mad-cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-wasting disease found in cows. A variant form of mad-cow disease has proved fatal in humans.
The first domestic case of mad-cow disease was announced Dec. 23, 2003, and the USDA and its more than 230 attorneys immediately went into response mode, said Bryson, now a partner in the Washington-based law firm Venable LLP.
The legal team initially worked with other U.S. government agencies and officials from other countries and helped coordinate response to media questions. Lawyers later wrestled with implementing new testing measures, crafting a cattle identification system, and faced pressure from Congress.
USDA also encountered legal challenges, primarily from cattlemen who sued in a Montana court. The group was unhappy about resumption of cattle imports from Canada, where a handful of BSE cases have been confirmed. USDA ended up victorious in the courts because its decision was based on solid science and its administrative and legal work was thorough, Bryson said.
Mad-cow disease brought with it both economic and political challenges for the country, Bryson told law students.
Canadian beef bans cost the U.S. about 7,800 packing jobs, according to the American Meat Institute, a trade group representing Tyson and other packers. Ban-related costs have resulted in about $1.7 billion in losses for U.S. packers, according to the U.S. National Meat Association.
A Japanese ban since December 2003 on importing U.S. beef remains, and Bryson said the impact is significant.
"I don't think anyone thought it would take this long (to get the ban lifted)," she said. "They have a different view on testing."
Japan tests all cattle for the presence of BSE while the United States primarily tests animals that appear to be sick. Also, the U.S. claims the disease can only be detected in animals older than 30 months.
"There are different national and international testing standards," Bryson said. "The fact it's taken (two years) to restore trade shows the need for (all countries to use) international standards."
U.S. officials say Japan is unnecessarily delaying the resumption of beef trade, claiming U.S. beef is as safe as Japanese beef.
President George W. Bush, due to meet Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi on Nov. 16, wants U.S. exporters to regain access to Japan's $1.7 million market for imported beef, now dominated by Australia.
A 28-day public comment period has begun now that Japan's Food Safety Commission today approved an Oct. 31 report by a subcommittee that concluded U.S. beef is safe.
The subcommittee issued a draft report which concluded that the risk of BSE infection from beef imports from the United States and Canada is "extremely low," as long as stringent safety measures are followed. A limited market reopening could occur before year's end for beef from cattle 20 months and younger, trade experts say.
"By far, the more important trade issue is with Japan (rather than Canada)," Prudential Equity Group analyst John McMillin wrote in a recent note to investors.
Tyson said in August that it expected Japan and South Korea, another significant trade partner, to open borders to U.S. beef this month or in December, which falls in fiscal 2006 for Tyson. The company's beef segment sales were off by 1.5 percent through the first nine months of fiscal 2005, down to $8.67 billion from $8.8 billion.
Tyson's fiscal 2005 financials will be released Monday.
Tyson's international beef sales fell by nearly 32 percent in fiscal 2004 as compared to fiscal 2003, according to a company fact book. Beef sales to Japan fell from $594 million to $165 million, a drop of 72 percent, in that same period. Tyson's fiscal 2004 included a short period before bans took hold.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
