U.S. Opens way for Canadian cattle: 'Wonderful news': Exports could resume next week
July 15, 2005
National Post
A4
Simon Doyle
Source: CanWest News Service
The U.S. government announced last night it would immediately open the border to Canadian cattle after a court ruling cleared the way for beef exports to resume.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday removed an injunction that blocked a U.S. plan to resume cattle imports from Canada, after the United States said the animals do not pose a threat of spreading mad cow disease to people. The court ruled the ban that began in May, 2003, should be removed.
"Because the ruling is effective immediately, we are immediately taking steps to resume the importation of cattle under 30 months of age from Canada," said Mike Johanns, the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary.
"USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is already in contact with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to prepare to certify cattle for shipment," Mr. Johanns said in a statement.
''[The ruling] is wonderful news that has been long awaited,'' Stan Eby, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said in a statement. ''I hope that all the necessary paperwork will soon be in place so that we may see the first shipments of cattle crossing the border in short order.''
Canada's cattle industry has lost an estimated $7-billion because of the live-cattle ban that was triggered by the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in an Alberta cow.
Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, said yesterday imports of some live cattle are likely to start by ''sometime early next week.''
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said he would like to see cattle moving south within days.
"We want to see things normalized just as quickly as they possibly can, and we're expecting that there will be people prepared to move animals that have been waiting for this judgment," Mr. Wartman said.
But B.C. Cattlemen's Association general manager David Borth said there is another important hurdle to overcome, as a Montana judge will make a final ruling on the matter after a July 27 hearing. "We're still facing the hearing for the permanent injunction to be held in Montana July 27, but this recent decision is a good sign.
"The ban has been going on for over two years now, and everyone has been impacted in one way or another.
"It has long been proven that this ban is not a public health and safety issue -- that the BSE cases do not pose a risk to humans. The ban has simply been a protectionist issue."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and meat industry groups had argued Canada's cattle posed only a "minimal risk" of spreading mad cow disease.
The groups asked the court to overturn a ruling in March that blocked imports of some animals. Canada normally supplies about 5% of the 35 million animals slaughtered each year by the U.S. beef industry.
Yesterday, Mr. Boyle said the ranchers' association that argued to uphold the embargo on Canadian cattle is engaged in ''scare tactics'' that are leaving an irreversible mark on the North American beef market.
The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund -- or R-CALF -- is a Montana ranchers' lobby supported by consumer groups and some of the scientific community.
"For an American interest group to characterize Canadian beef as unsafe is like calling your twin sister ugly," Mr. Boyle told a news conference in Ottawa. "We have the same cattle species."
While the U.S. beef market has contracted since the ban, Canada's has grown, creating two independent markets that are likely to compete with one another when the border reopens, industry officials from both sides of the border said. The American Meat Institute says meat companies have laid off 7,800 workers since 2003. But since the border has closed, Canada has increasingly processed more packaged beef at home for export internationally, an industry that is now worth $135-million a month.
"We are investing to expand our beef processing industry here in Canada," said Jim Laws, head of the Canadian Meat Council. "The bricks-and-mortar investments that we've been making to process the cattle that we used to export to the United States are quite literally concrete. They will not be dismantled if the border opens."
Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association president Brian Ross said it was vindicating to have such a quick decision.
"I thought a week might be pushing it but to come up the next day like this. Obviously it wasn't much of a discussion," said the Estevan, Sask. rancher
Many Canadian ranchers from across the country were planning celebrations mere hours after hearing news of Thursday's ruling.
"I'm going to drink beer. Probably lots of it," said Rick Paskal, a Picture Butte, Alta., feedlot owner. "We've been through hell. We've lost our money, and taxpayers have bailed us out so we can maintain a livelihood. It's just a big, big sigh of relief today."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had intended to open the border on March 7, but R-CALF helped win a Montana court decision to keep the temporary injunction in place.
