One unexpected revelation was that France had offered to consider allowing beef from Scotland tobe imported again where grass-fed herds could be shown never to had any contact with BSE or mad cow disease.
"I think it brings up the QE3 question again, but one data point will not be enough to convince the Fed about the need for further easing, " said Priya Misra, head of U.S. rates strategy research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.