But, this impact is only a drop in the bucket if the world community does not get a handle on the disease. Table 1 shows the dollar value of total beef, swine and sheep imports into the United States by country of origin for 2000. It is interesting to note the geographic distribution of meat imports into the United States. European shipments are primarily pork. Imports from Australia and New Zealand are beef and lamb while imports from the other Americas are primarily beef.
Canadian shipments are primarily beef and pork.
The other Western European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Gibraltar and Malta are not part of the ban. Eastern European countries including Czechoslovakia, Hungary Poland, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria are also not affected by the ban. The major exporters of mutton, lamb and goat meat to the U.S. are Australia and New Zealand. There were no shipments of mutton, lamb or goat products from the European Union. These three exporting partners account for over 87 percent of the U.S. beef imports.