DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: The United States government yesterday took the step of banning animals and animal product imports from the European Union in response to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease to France. Here to look at what it might mean is Janet Guyon, London Bureau chief of "Fortune" magazine. And, Janet, I'll say again, this is not dangerous to people, but can be devastating for industry, right?</s>JANET GUYON, "FORTUNE": That's correct, Deborah. I mean, the E.U. and the U.S. are estimating that perhaps only about a half a billion dollars worth of imports for the E.U. -- from the E.U. will be affected by this ban by the U.S. But still, the disease itself can have a devastating effect. It results in reduced weight loss for animals, reduced milk output. So it really does affect the economics of the farming community. It's not just that they can't export meat or they can't develop -- they can't continue to develop their herds, but once that disease gets into the herds, the herds themselves just don't produce as much.</s>MARCHINI: All right. Now, my understanding is that beef exports from the E.U. to the U.S. are already banned because of the concerns about mad cow disease. Who would be most effected by this latest ban?</s>GUYON: That's correct, Deborah. I mean, beef is really not going into the U.S. from the E.U. anyway. It's really the pork producers, the people who bring in pork products. And Denmark is probably the most affected. They have almost 200 million of that 500 is from Denmark, various pork products. So it really is pork producers in Europe who will be most affected by the U.S. ban.</s>MARCHINI: Potentially, a significant economic impact. Janet Guyon, "Fortune" magazine, thank you.
United States Bans Animals and Product Imports from European Union