Why Isn't That Border Open?

[farmers_son]

Really, why didn't the border open to live cattle, cows and calves the day the USDA announced their domestic BSE positive?

Maybe the U.S. needed the USDA rule to allow live Canadian cattle when the U.S. was still trying to lie to the world that they had BSE too but now they are past that why the delay?

Being a little sarcastic, if the U.S. still needs a rule to protect U.S. consumers from Canadian live cattle then the USDA should immediately halt the slaughter of U.S. live cattle until such time as a rule can be developed for those animals. And given the need for public comment etc. I would expect that rule should take about 18 months or longer to put in place, not to mention the court cases after that.

I hear that the court cases are still on? Well why? I do not think they even need a rule any more regarding live cattle. The U.S. packers could simply slaughter our live calves with American live calves, after all they are one and the same.

It should not be a question of how the courts will rule anymore, it is a question of why isn't that border open. That is the question our industry leaders and government should be asking.

[JD4ME]

I had that thought too , If the US is now a country with the same "minimal risk" status as the US should we not be able to make a sale to a US feedlot or packer load up the trucks do the paperwork as before and ship. The need for the USDA to even have a rule is now moot.

[grassfarmer]

Unfortunately the damn bureaucrats and politicians don't think like that - it would take them six months to think, ruminate and rule that it was worth reconsidering the status quo.

I maybe told it before but I'm reminded of a situation we had in Europe a few years back when they were reforming the sheepmeat part of the CAP. The countries had various unsuccessful meetings over an 18 month period and were unable to make progress. Meanwhile sheep producers were in limbo with no sense of what direction their operations should head. A delegation of European farm leaders turned up in the Highlands of Scotland for a photo op on the huge hill farms of the former NFU Scotland chairman John Cameron, who is also the biggest sheep farmer in Europe. As their convoy of SUVs wended their way up a steep hillside on a cold, wet March day John halted the group, pulled out a bunch of deck chairs and set them in a circle and told the guests to sit down and decide the policy reforms. He was trying to convey the frustration producers feel far from the ivory towers where the politicians operate. Of course they didn't stay in the rain for long and they didn't decide anything that day but it was worth seeing apparently, especially when at least one politician lost his patent leather shoe in the Perthshire mud!

[wd40]

RETORIC - RETORIC - You're wasting yer breath. Stick to the facts. We all know it's never been about health risks or science but all about trade.

So shut of the gas.

[farmers_son]

How about these facts. Once the USDA rule is in effect, we still do not have an open border. Look at the restrictions that are in place:

1. Feeders must be shipped to a U.S. feedlot in a sealed truck and then shipped to a packing plant in a sealed truck. The calves can only be in one feedlot. They must be branded CAN before leaving Canada.
2. The animals must be accompanied by a certificate verifying their farm of origin and the destination feedlot as well as all the responsible parties for the animal.
3. Animals must be under 30 months of age or the entire shipment could be returned to Canada if one animal is toothed OTM.
4. All movement of Canadian live cattle within the United States would need to take place in sealed trucks.
5. The procedure for U.S. plants slaughtering their domestic animals and Canadian live animals at the same time or using the same lines was not defined in the USDA rule.
6. No cow beef or live cows would enter the U.S.

While that may have been the hoops we had to jump through before the Texas Brahma, why are we still in court trying to defend what amounts to a non tariff barrier on Canadian livestock entering the United States. These rules are yesterdays news. That was how it was in the old days before the U.S. had BSE too. We do not have to put up with this protectionism any more. Canada and Mexico have not put similar rules in place to protect their consumers from the dangers of eating imported U.S. product.

How long is it going to take the U.S. to come around and open the borders to our live cattle without restriction. No one can blame Taiwan and others for closing their borders to U.S. beef when they see how the U.S treats Canadian product like it has the plague.

[kato]

You are absolutely right.

I think they are not sure what to do, so they will sit back and let the judges decide. It's easer. American style democracy is so cumbersome that to actually GET something done is a huge accomplishment.

It's easier to do nothing, and let the judges run the country than it is for the government to actually implement change.

[intr3est]

Kato, that's a dangerous option! I wonder what the consumers will think if RCALF wins and the case is splattered all over the tube! They should nip it in the bud now, for all our sakes!

[Cathy]

CTV.CA
Has a story. Ralph Klien is saying the case will be in the courts for another 2 yrs. And by mid 2006 we will be able to handle our beef at home. Now to find someone to buy it. As R Calf is trying to ban box beef.

[Cathy]

I haven't heard any of our commodity associations echo Ralph's view, so maybe he is just MUSING !!

[grassfarmer]

I couldn't find the story you mentioned online Cathy but I got this great quote from the US side.
"Officials announced last week that a 12-year-old beef cow from Texas tested positive for mad cow disease but they don't expect to find another case."
My, they seem awfully confident of that - are they reverting to the triple S policy again?

Emrald1, I think Ralph is as likely to know what is going on as the commodity groups (I take it you mean ABP /CCA). Let's face it, based on results to date the average producer is as likely to correctly predict the outcome as ABP/CCA.

[grassfarmer]

It is unfortunate if the Premier is resigned to the border not being open for two years. Government usually relies on the commodity groups to brief them on issues affecting the various sectors of industry grassfarmer .

[cowman]

Maybe the US can continue these rules because our federal government hasn't done enough to insist the border be opened? After all, how can you concentrate on business and commerce when you are all wrapped up in getting the gays married and trying your best to cater to the NDP? I doubt the western Canadian beef farmer even registers on the NDP screen!
The federal Liberals will not go to bat on this one for us...and why should they? Practically no one here voted for them other than the a few "educated elites" in good old Redmonton!
Instead we have our eastern establishment openly scorning the American administration, calling them bastards and idiots? Now that surely makes the President want to just get right with the program?
The one good thing I can see is the Canadian food inspectors have acted in a rational way and haven't gone off half cocked? They have come across as being very professional and honest? To bad the same can't be said for the Liberal government?

[cowman]

Hit the nail on the head cowman. NDP has no agricultural policy, and it doesn't seem that the Liberal ag policy extends to the beef industry in Alberta.
Conservatives have been too busy spinning their wheels to have much of an ag policy but I do give them credit for lobbying for the opportunity to present a position paper at the court case in the US.

Until the Ontario farmers start declaring bankruptcies, due to BSE don't look for the feds to make any attempt to get the border open. I am not sure exactly what our own provincial government is doing at this time, hopefully not sitting with their hands folded resigned to the border not being open for two years !

[farmers_son]

For some time I have been of the view that the border will open when it is in the best interest of the United States to open it. From a fair trade or science standpoint there seems to be little politicians of any stripe on the North side of the 49th parallel could do to see fair trade resume.

And while we could argue partisan politics such as the border is closed because the NDP has no agriculture policy or the border will not open until BSE affects Ontario I would argue that the border will open because not to open threatens U.S. consumer’s confidence in beef, not to mention delaying the resumption of normalized trade with American foreign customers and causing job losses at home as packing plants lay off workers and reduce kill days.

I believe the expectation is that the border will open on July 13. The Appeal of the R-Calf Injunction gives the Americans a face saving way out of the whole R-Calf mess. While the border should have opened immediately, if there was any sense of fairness, to do so would have highlighted how unfair the Americans treatment of Canada has been since May 20, 2003.

It has been my impression that the less we hear in the press from government or our industry associations the more that is actually taking place behind the scenes. Certainly the Texas Brahma has leveled the playing field when it comes to BSE, that positive test will make a huge, huge difference.

We should name that cow “Open Sesame” because she opened the border. How about erecting a bronze statue of her at the Coutts border crossing. Maybe being led by an Alberta cattleman with his hand and digit finger held high where our American friends can see it.

[farmers_son]

And what possible good would that do ? If the border opens we need to get on with business, forget US bashing. We need them and they need our cattle.