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Saturday 24 June 2017 BUSINESS
A24

Brazil to try to reverse U.S. ban on Brazil meat

By STAN LEHMAN the export suspension and
Associated Press that “adjustments to the
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s production processes” are
agriculture minister plans to already underway and will
travel to the United States be presented to the Ag-
to try to reverse the Ameri- riculture Ministry’s mission
can ban of beef imports that will go to the United
from Latin America’s big- States. In March, Brazilian
gest country. authorities said they were
Blairo Maggi’s posted so- investigating inspectors
cial media comments on who allegedly allowed ex-
his trip and the ban late pired meats enter the mar-
Thursday, hours after U.S. ket in exchange for bribes.
Agriculture Secretary Son- Several countries, including
ny Perdue announced in a major importer China, tem-
statement the immediate porarily stopped buying
suspension of all Brazilian Brazilian meats. After as-
fresh beef imports because surances from Brazilian of-
of safety concerns. ficials, most began buying
The U.S. statement said sus- again within a few weeks.
pension will remain in place The episode had a large
until Brazil takes corrective financial impact at a time
action. when Latin America’s big-
Maggi said Brazil will fight In this March 21, 2017 file photo, workers prep poultry at the meatpacking company JBS in Lapa, gest economy is struggling
for the U.S. market and that Brazil. to emerge from its worst
he plans to head a mission Associated Press recession in a generation.
to the United States to ne- March, U.S. inspectors have dressed concerns of Ameri- disease. He said the lumps For several weeks, the usual
gotiate the resumption of refused entry to 11 per- can inspectors by pro- did not represent a public tens of millions of dollars in
Brazilian beef exports. cent of Brazilian fresh beef hibiting five facilities from health hazard. daily exports slowed to less
Perdue’s decision was an- products, about 1.9 million shipping beef to the U.S., “We must resolve this mat- than $100,000.
nounced three months af- pounds. “That figure is sub- but said that didn’t go far ter as quickly as possible Brazil was the world’s larg-
ter a major scandal into al- stantially higher than the enough. because cattle breeding est producer of beef and
legations of bribed meat in- rejection rate of one per- Maggi attributed the US- in Brazil is going through a veal in 2016 and one of the
spectors shook Brazil’s meat cent of shipments from the DA’s safety concerns to the very difficult moment with top exporters, according
industry and prompted sev- rest of the world,” the state- lumps some steers develop low market prices,” Maggi to U.S. Agriculture Depart-
eral countries to temporar- ment said. as a result of an allergic said. The Brazilian Beef Ex- ment. The country is also a
ily halt imports. The statement noted that reaction to the vaccine porters Association said in major exporter of chicken
Perdue said that since Brazil had already ad- against foot-and-mouth a statement it lamented and pork products.q

Sears closes another

20 stores

has with Seritage, if a store Fung Global & Retail Tech-
is unprofitable, Sears Hold- nology, which tracks retail-
ings has the option to exit ers’ closings.
the lease by making a pay- On Thursday, Sears an-
ment equal to one year’s nounced the opening of
rent. its first Sears Appliances &
“We have been strate- Mattresses concept store,
gically and aggressively located in Pharr, Texas. The
evaluating our store space company said the store
and productivity, and have builds on the success of the
accelerated the closing of Sears Appliances store that
unprofitable stores as pre- opened in Fort Collins, Col-
viously announced,” said
Howard Riefs, in a state- orado, last year.q
ment emailed to The Asso-
ciated Press.
In this March 22, 2017, photo, a clerk waits on a customer at a Sears store in St. Paul, Minn. Riefs said the stores will
Associated Press close in mid-September;
liquidation sales will begin
By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO Seritage, which owns the Corp. sold 235 Sears and by the end of June.
AP Retail Writer 20 real estate properties, Kmart store locations to These closures come in ad-
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears is confirmed the closings— 18 Seritage as part of an dition to the closing of 226
closing another 20 stores Sears stores and two Kmart agreement in which Sears stores — 164 Kmart stores
as the ailing retailer tries to stores — in a government leases the stores back from and 62 Sears stores— al-
turn around its business. filing Friday. the real estate company. ready announced this year,
Real estate investment trust In 2015, Sears Holdings Under the agreement it according to research firm