Beef from Paraguay possible

The U.S. Embassy in Paraguay announced Oct. 12 that representatives of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) presented the results of a risk assessment regarding beef exportation from Paraguay to the United States. Experts from APHIS and SENACSA (Paraguay’s National Secretary for Animal Health), the release embassy said, have worked hard to find the technical arguments that would allow Paraguayan meat to have access to the U.S. market. APHIS has certain measures to evaluate risk of animal and plant products entering the U.S. U.S. representatives emphasized that this is a very important step for Paraguay. Imports of beef from Paraguay is banned in the U.S. due to foot-and-mouth disease. The embassy noted that with this evaluation, the USDA has the technical basis for proposing a change in the U.S. Federal Code of Regulations. The process of changing the regulations must go through a public review and comment. As of press time APHIS had not announced a change in status for importing beef from Paraguay into the United States.