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Arkansas Democrat Gazette – Saturday – September 15, 2007 USDA relaxes rules for cattle trade BY DAVID IRVIN The age of Canadian cattle crossing into the United States won’t matter starting this fall, after the U. S. Department of Agriculture said Friday that it would relax trade barriers with the neighbor to the north. Unless Congress or the courts intervene to stop the new rule from taking effect, starting Nov. 19, Canadian producers can ship any cow born since March 1999 into the United States — so long as its age can be verified — as well as cow blood, casings and parts of the small intestines. However, consumers aren’t likely to see much savings from the extra cattle supply. If anything, they may get slightly lower prices on hamburger meat, said James Robb, an economist at the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Colorado. Only cows younger than 30 months had been imported from Canada, since they are at lower risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. There has been an outbreak of the brain-wasting disease in Canada, with 10 cases identified in recent years. The new rule, based on a scientific risk assessment, demonstrates that the United States is committed to international animal safety standards, veterinary officials at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said Friday. Officials at Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer — which has a beef processing plant in Canada — agreed. “We believe the USDA decision is an appropriate, science-based step and will help bring stability back to the North American beef market,” Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson wrote in an e-mail. However, some industry and consumer groups blasted the new rule, contending it puts the U. S. industry at risk for mad-cow disease, which they said would cripple international trade. “We have filed over a thousand pages of comments that demonstrate the science does not support the relaxation that the USDA is seeking,” Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of the cattle producer advocate Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, said Friday. “It will expose our industry and consumers to both an unacceptable and avoidable risk.” John Clifford, the USDA’s chief veterinary officer, rejected that idea. “In our risk assessment, we carefully considered all the steps that would have to occur in Canada and in America” for the establishment of mad-cow disease in the United States, Clifford said in a press conference from Washington. He called the risk of that happening “negligible.” At least one of Canada’s mad cow cases was discovered since January, when the USDA published the proposed rule that it finalized Friday. The first U. S. case of mad-cow disease, discovered in December 2003, was traced to Canada. That discovery prompted 60 nations around the world to block U. S. beef, leading to an oversupply of cattle at home that drove prices down. Bullard argued that by allowing more Canadian beef into the United States, the risk of further trade disruptions increases. However, the government holds that beef trade should get a boost from allowing older cattle from Canada. “This is an important move to promote fair, science-based trade,” Clifford said. Asked if the trade rule was relaxed to prompt South Korea and Japan to ease rules against U.S. shipments, Clifford said, “We know our trading partners were aware of this particular rule.” Both Asian nations maintain some beef import restrictions, even though the World Organization for Animal Health declared U. S. beef a “controlled risk” for mad-cow disease earlier this year. Canada received the same distinction. Initially, the USDA estimated 657,000 older cattle would be imported into the United States annually under the new rule. However, analysts revised that number down to 75,000 because age verification will be difficult. The rule states that cattle must be born on or after March 1, 1999 — the date Canada banned feeding cow parts to other cattle — to be eligible for import. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in Colorado supports the rule, and says trade of $125 million to $260 million with Mexico and Canada will likely be restored after it takes effect. “It may be popular to bash this rule, but cattlemen win in the global marketplace when trade is based on internationally accepted guidelines,” John Queen, the president of the cattlemen’s beef association, said in a statement. Bullard said his group will lobby Congress to kill the rule. If that doesn’t work, the group will seek a court injunction to stop it, he said. http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/201510/ To contact this reporter: dirvin@arkansasonline.com |
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This page was last updated on Friday, June 06, 2008. |
