A relatively small buyer in Central America is Canada’s latest win in efforts to reopen international borders and ports to Canadian beef.
Costa Rica, which shut the door on a quarter-million- dollar market for Canadian beef in 2003 following confirmation of Canada’s first domestic case of BSE, will now allow “full, unrestricted access” to Canadian beef and beef products, the government said Feb. 7.
The value of Canada’s pre-BSE beef exports to Costa Rica in 2002 totalled $235,000, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said in a release.
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Costa Rica has had a bilateral free trade agreement in place with Canada since 2002, and the two countries are now in talks to expand that deal, the government said.
CCA president Travis Toews says this agreement gives Canadian beef producers and processors a total of 43 countries – 16 plus the 27 members of the European Union – with no age restrictions on imports of the Canadian product.
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have reopened to Canadian boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age (UTMs), while Colombia and Panama normalized beef trade in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Peru agreed in 2009 to allow limited amounts of boneless Canadian beef duty-free as part of its free trade deal with Canada.
