Philippines lifts Canada ban

The Philippines has re-opened its borders to Canadian beef following the reported case of BSE in a Canadian cow in May. This makes it the first Asian and the third country in the world (next to the US and Mexico) to relax its border controls on Canadian beef. However, the lifting of the ban is subject to various conditions. Namely, Canada will need to issue certification attesting that it complies with conditions as presenting a minimal BSE risk; ante-mortem inspection will also need to be carried out on all cattle from which the meat or meat products destined for export originate; they will need to ensure that the cattle were not subjected to a stunning process injecting compressed air or gas into the cranial cavity (brain) prior to slaughter; and the fresh meat products destined for export do not contain brain, eyes, spinal cord or mechanically separated meat from the skull and vertebral column from cattle over 30 months of age, all of which have been removed in a hygienic manner. Canada has historically only been a small player in the Philippines beef import market, accounting for only 1% of beef imports in 2002.