Britain hopeful EU will ease meat export ban

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Britain is hopeful that the European Union will agree to ease an export ban on its meat and dairy products, provoked by an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, when veterinary experts meet on Thursday, a British diplomat said.

Britain hopes the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCOFCAH), meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, will designate most of Britain a "low-risk" area for the disease.

This would mean that meat and dairy produce could be exported although a livestock ban would remain.

"The ideal outcome from tomorrow would be that the rest of Great Britain other than the surveillance zone (around the affected farms) would effectively be declared free of foot and mouth disease and would be able to trade again," the diplomat told AFP.

He declared himself "reasonably optimistic" that the export ban would be eased, not least because the EU decision requires only a qualified majority. not unanimous agreement, although London hopes that all 26 of its EU partners will reach the same decision.

"I'd hope that they would appreciate that we have controlled the situation very well, the evolution of the disease is such that we can consider relaxing the restrictions," he added.

Currently the whole of Britain -- comprising England, Scotland and Wales -- is considered a high-risk area with the ban extending to foodstuffs.

Foot and mouth disease was confirmed on two farms in Surrey, southeast England early this month.

The European Commission, which will put a proposal to the veterinary experts meeting, has been supportive of Britain's efforts.

"The evolution of the disease situation is positive so we will be considering on Thursday whether we can reduce the size of the high-risk and low-risk zones," Philip Tod, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, said Tuesday.

In London, Abbie Sampson, spokeswoman for Dritain's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said a 10-kilometre surveillance zone around the Surry farms could be removed on September 8 at the earliest.

That would give Britain the opportunity to return to Brussels and seek to have the export ban lifted further

She said that the EU nations had quite a range of options if they do decide to ease the export ban on Thursday.

"The devil's in the detail" she said.

One European disease expert said that an option that could be discussed would be declaring a "buffer zone" around the high-risk area and allowing even livestock outside the buffer to be sent abroad.

There may also be talk of keeping a ban on fresh meat while allowing processed food through.

Thursday's meeting Britain's deputy chief veterinary officer, Fred Landeg, will give a presentation to his fellow EU experts and take their questions before the meeting makes a decision on what measures are appropriate.

The earliest date that Britain can regain full disease free status, under World Organisation for Animal Health rules, is early November, three months after the last foot and mouth case.

British farmers are hoping to avoid a repeat of the costly 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, which also evoked an EU export ban and cost the national economy about eight billion pounds while devastating the agriculture sector.

Between 6.5 million and 10 million animals were slaughtered and burned.