madam president i would also like to thank the commissioner for her very full statement possibly one of the fullest and most substantive statements we have heard from a commissioner lately
this issue does merit it and as one of the last veterans of the first battle of brazilian beef it is a pleasure to see so many familiar faces in the chamber tonight
i hope that indicates that we are interested and serious regarding this issue
we support you in what you are saying about the import controls and about fmd
frankly that is not quite what this issue is about and that is why i am so glad that those who wanted to broaden this issue out to imports from third countries have achieved that aim
it is not just about brazilian beef
it is about the wider principle that our consumers our voters and our farmers demand that imports from those countries which would seek to bring their produce here meet our standards and that means meet all our standards
so it troubles me to hear you accept the fact that brazil has lower standards of traceability than we do because it might not create such a disease risk coming into the territory of the european union
our consumers expect exactly the same standards in all things coming into the european union
i accept your point if you are talking about strict disease control but we are talking about equity and fairness
our consumers demand and our farmers demand and we frankly demand that we have exactly the same standards of traceability across brazil and across all third countries
for an fvo report to come back that said fifty of the inspections failed or had problems with them is just like throwing red meat to a pack of hungry wolves as you perhaps see this evening
can you assure us when is the next fvo report and will you actually take it seriously and ban whichever countries fail to meet our standards
