Borders closed or what?

[rusty1]

Can someone tell me if we are still importing beef from Ontario east from the US?

[ALICIA]

yes the borders are closes
They are still killing cattle
about 400 or so with last count.
But not finding any more mad cows.
borders are to be keep close until they find the source.

[ALICIA]

one other news they think the cow may of been made into dog food and sent to the U.S. They are not sure.

[Smithy]

Does this mean that someone will have to inspect the homes of American dog food purchasers to make sure no ruminants can get at Fido's dish?
Actually that could be a problem as a lot of livestock guardian dogs are probably fed where sheep have acess to their food.

[rusty1]

Let me repeat my question - Did we shut the borders to Americian Beef. Eastern Canada imports American beef and I wonder if we have shut that off?

[charliep]

The border shut down applies to all Canada including eastern Canada. The USDA press release is at:

http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2003/05/bg0166.htm

[charliep]

I should read your question better. No restrictions on US beef imports into Canada.

[grassfarmer]

Why should the border be closed to US imports Rusty?(I assume that is what you are implying) - it's Canada that has the problem so why antagonise the Americans with trade retaliation when we have so much to lose by doing so?

[15444]

I agree totally grassfarmer. Why make this situation worse by getting into a trade war? Most people can sympathize with the Americans. It's not their fault that we came up with BSE. They are just protecting their markets which is a smart move. Let's just focus on killing all of these herds that are quarantined so we can get confidence back in our export markets. Then we can get on with raising beef, and not hell.

[cakadu]

I'm curious - do you think once the ban is lifted - whenever that is - that it will go back to business as usual, or will we be looking at an uphill battle in terms of restoring confidence in those countries that have banned our products and cattle?

I'm not so sure that things will bounce back quickly - it's going to take time.

The other question is how long is the border going to remain closed? 30 days is probably something that some of the major feedlots can handle, but 60 days is going to put a lot of stress on the whole system. Look at how things are slowing already and we are just at the tip of the iceberg so to speak.