Canada Bans Brazilian Beef

 
The February 13, 2001 issue of BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest, published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (http://www.ictsd.org), reported on Canada's recent ban of Brazilian beef products. Canada defended its action by arguing that Brazil had not complied with Canada's 1998 request to prove that Brazilian cattle was not infected with mad cow disease. The ban "triggered an avalanche of fierce Brazilian reactions ranging from governmental threats of diverse measures of retaliation to domestic Brazilian demonstrations of discontent."

According to the article, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has given Canada a deadline of three weeks to comply with its promise to send a team of health inspectors to Brazil to lift the ban. The Brazilian government has "threatened abandoning talks on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), retaliating against Canadian companies, challenging Canada before the WTO and turning to the International Court of Justice to seek compensation for the losses (estimated by Brazilian beef exporters to amount to $US1 million dollars per week)."

Brazil has argued that the Canadian action could be related to Brazil's victory last week in an aircraft subsidies dispute before the World Trade Organization.