China has joined other nations in suspending US beef imports after the discovery of the first US case of the deadly mad cow disease, authorities said yesterday.
"China will temporarily ban imports of US cattle and cow products. This does not include milk, milk products, leather and gelatin," the Agriculture Ministry and quarantine bureau said in a joint statement in Shanghai.
Total US beef imports to China are estimated to rise by 11 percent to 30,000 tonnes this year, according to US figures. About 10 percent of US beef is exported.
Japan, Mexico and South Korea, the top buyers of US beef, halted imports after the case was disclosed on Tuesday in a huge blow for the US$27 billion US cattle industry.
Other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine and South Africa, have followed suit. Canada imposed a partial ban.
The incident will deliver a blow to the massive American beef industry and the overall economy, analysts say, but to what degree remains uncertain.
The beef industry is a powerful force in the US economy, accounting for some US$188 billion in economic activity and 1.4 million jobs, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association statistics.
Sales of cattle and calves alone represent some US$40 billion, or one-fifth of all agricultural receipts. Exports accounted for some US$3.4 billion last year, according to the US Meat Export Federation. Japan, South Korea and Mexico are the top markets.
Most US exports are expected to be halted in the near future, though the impact on domestic consumption remains unclear.
"Unquestionably, in the short term, there is going to be a huge economic impact," said Jan Novakofski, professor of animal science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "When the Canadians had one case, we slammed the border shut on their industry and cost them billions of dollars."
Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors said there will be a short-term impact, but the long-term effect is unclear.
"Clearly there are some countries that have banned imports, and those markets are going to be closed for an extended period, so the export markets will be hurt," he said.
On the domestic front, Naroff said, "we don't know to what extent or if it has entered the food chain. If it has, that would be a different impact than if it was isolated."
Bank One chief economist Diane Swonk said there could be some economic losses from exports, but domestically the impact may be more of a shift away from beef to other products.
"It's not as if people stop eating," she said. "They may start eating more chicken. Steakhouses aren't going to be as full, and that has been a rising trend ... it creates a lot of substitution effects and a whole new set of winners and losers."
"But the big issue is how transitory it is. It had an impact for years in Europe, while in Canada it was more short-term," Swonk added. "If it gets to be a larger scare, it does create a much larger problem."
On Wall Street, losses were limited, as traders chose to wait for additional information, although fast-food chains such as McDonald's and meat distributors saw their shares tumble.
"Obvious candidates for negative stock price reactions include restaurants, meat purveyors and even grocery chains," said Smith Barney analyst Tobias Levkovich.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS