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Inside U.S. Trade – Friday – March 16, 2007

U.S. Groups Seek Senate Help In Preventing Canadian Beef Trade

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund and dozens of other beef industry groups and livestock sale barns this week asked members of the Senate to help stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture from writing a final rule that would fully open the U.S. border to Canadian beef and cattle of all ages.

The March 12 industry letter did not outline a specific remedy, but industry sources said signatories want the Senate to pass a resolution of disapproval of the USDA rule once it comes out. Industry groups hope that a resolution passed by both houses of Congress could be used to force USDA to rewrite the rule. In 2005, the Senate approved a similar resolution on beef trade with Canada, but it never managed to pass the House.

“We are seeking your help to prevent the implementation of USDA’s proposed rule,” the letter said. It cited several reasons for opposition, and said generally that Congress must stop the rule in order to “protect the health and safety of the U.S. cattle herd, the safety of the U.S. beef supply, and the viability of the U.S. cattle industry.”

Among other things, the letter said allowing Canadian cattle into the U.S. would hurt U.S. efforts to restore lost export markets, put the U.S. at a greater risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) due to the presence of cattle older than 30 months, hurt the U.S. disease risk profile and lead to more financial losses for U.S. ranchers.

The letter was sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Harkin has told USDA he is concerned about the rule, according to a spokeswoman.

The letter was sent just after USDA refused to grant a request from R-CALF and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to extend the comment period on the new Canada rule.

“I don’t have any information that we are considering an extension,” a USDA spokeswoman said. “The comment period as it stands is closed, and we’re reviewing all of those comments.”

She declined to estimate how much time would be needed to review the comments and write the rule. However, R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard said he thinks USDA is “moving forward quickly” with the rule, and that it could be published in as little as 60 days after the March 12 comment deadline.

At a minimum, he said he believes USDA will finish analyzing comments and drafting the final rule more quickly than it did in the case of an earlier rule that partly opened the border to Canadian beef. In that case, USDA took 243 days from the time comments were due until the rule’s Jan. 5, 2005, publication.

USDA’s latest proposed rule drew more than 80 comments, including roughly 1,000 pages of written comments and attachments from R-CALF. These attachments included detailed economic impact data and research calling into question USDA’s assessment of how much the rule would increase the risk of importing Canadian cattle into the U.S. that are infected with BSE.

An NMPF spokesman added that his group was disappointed USDA did not perform an economic impact analysis on how the rule would affect the U.S. dairy industry. He pointed out that six of Canada’s last seven BSE cases were in cattle born after Canada in 1997 banned the practice of feeding ruminant tissue to cattle.

The NMPF spokesman indicated he believes the issue should be linked to the resolution of other U.S. agricultural disputes with Canada, such as Canada’s effort to raise tariffs on milk protein concentrates, its WTO corn case against the U.S. and its effort to limit the ingredients that can be used in cheese. “The push by Canada to normalize trade in its cattle exports needs to be viewed in its proper context as just part of our struggle with them on these other issues,” the NMPF spokesman said.

USDA’s first Canada rule was initially drafted to allow imports of all Canadian beef, as well as imports of live cattle younger than 30 months of age. However, USDA delayed implementation of the rule for beef from cattle older than 30 months, on U.S. beef processing industry complaints that it would be inconsistent to allow imports of older cattle only after they are slaughtered.

The second rule, which USDA is now drafting in its final form, would allow imports of Canadian live cattle older than 30 months. USDA has indicated that if it implements this rule, it will publish a notice that implements the portion of the earlier rule that allows the importation of beef from Canadian cattle older than 30 months of age. R-CALF argues that USDA is not allowed to implement the delayed portion of the first rule because it included a risk assessment of beef from cattle older than 30 months only in its final rule, and did not receive comments on this risk assessment (Inside U.S. Trade, Jan. 12).

The European Union submitted formal comments on the second rule, in which it argued that EU member states should have the same rights as Canada to export beef to the United States. The EU pointed out that EU member states test all slaughtered cattle older than 30 months of age for BSE, remove specified risk materials (SRMs) deemed at risk of carrying BSE, ban feeding mammalian meat and bone to cattle and have few BSE cases.

The comments suggested notifying the policy to the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and called on the U.S. to conform to standards, product lists and terminology used by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

Separately, the OIE recommended the same risk classification for Canada and the United States. In separate March 9 statements, the U.S. and Canada each welcomed the recommendation by an OIE scientific body that both countries should be treated as “controlled risk” countries for BSE. The OIE’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code stipulates that countries should not restrict beef imports from controlled risk countries, regardless of age or the inclusion of bones, as long as the SRMs are removed.

OIE members are expected in May to vote whether to approve these two risk status recommendations.

                            This page was last updated on Friday, June 06, 2008.