Simple Question

[15444]

U.S. horns in on sales of beef to Mexico

BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA

CALGARY -- Not content to torpedo Canada's beef industry with its own border closure, the U.S. is crippling our country's efforts to sell live cattle to Mexico, a federal agriculture spokesman said here yesterday. Mexico has indicated a willingness to begin accepting shipments of younger Canadian livestock for the first time since a May 20, 2003, BSE discovery in northern Alberta closed markets, said Agriculture Canada's Blair Coomber.

"But the main obstacle ... is that the U.S. controls the situation," Coomber told delegates to the Canada Beef Export Federation's International Marketing Seminar.

He said U.S. unwillingness to allow the transhipment of banned Canadian livestock across its territory to Mexico has sparked another trade spat between the two nations.

One American concern over Canadian cattle entering Mexico is that they would re-enter the U.S., said Coomber. Shipping cattle or beef products to Mexico by air and sea is an expensive alternative, he added.

Other speakers at the gathering said it's imperative Ottawa devote more cash in securing non-U.S. markets for Canadian beef.

The federation hopes to increase its non-U.S. exports of beef products to 500,000 tonnes a year - an increase Coomber called significant.



Now, just a simple question. I have heard the CBEF talk about how it would be too expensive to ship beef products and beef by air or sea, before. So how do they think they are going to get beef to these so called 'new markets' that they are trying to develop? If we can't ship beef by sea to Mexico, I don't understand how we can ship beef anywhere else.

[grassmarketeer]

The problem is not so much the shipments by air or sea; the problem is the US threats to Mexico should they accept live cattle from Canada through any pathway.

The reporter in this case only told part of the story as this reporter was sitting at this meeting as well.

Yes the costs would be extreme to move cattle on a boat from Canada to Mexico, but Coomer did not tell the story as clearly as the Secretary of Agriculture for Mexico did. Mexico cannot jeopardize there existing trade with the USA by having threatened sanctions played out should Mexico go ahead with live cattle imports from Canada.

Shipments of trapas, or offal products are being held up over trucking through the USA concerns even though UTM boxed products are allowed.

This USA thing is a lot more than simply Rcalf. Rcalf is the scapegoat for more political games being played by our friends THE USDA.

A fair bit of conversation revolved around, what I will call bullying tactics by our USDA friends. These, so called, North American Beef Industry supporters are using the blame game in negotiations with off shore customers.
Most, if not all of the Asian representatives see through these tactics, however attaching trade of beef with other commodities is keeping their hands tied.

Indonesia is the first country to accept American product, but no Canadian.

Slaughter capacity is our best solution right now, and in my view Canadian owned. There is ample potential for exports to Asia by the time we have the ability to slaughter. These people want to trade with Canada, and will trade with Canada when we can supply them.

[farmers_son]

I believe Australia has the ability to ship live cattle by sea so it can be done.

I am glad to see some focus being placed where it belonged all along, that the problem is the U.S. government. I would not say R-Calf is a scapegoat as they were certainly more than willing to grab the chance to keep our product out of the U.S. when the USDA handed it to them on a plate. R-Calf is more of an instrument of convenience for the USDA to deflect blame from the purely protectionist stance and delaying tactics of the U.S. government.

Mexico has been solidly on our side throughout this crisis and I hope that goes a long way to build a solid relationship with Mexico after this is over.

[cakadu]

How many cattle does Mexico want to take? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for us to ship them whatever products they want versus the live animal? There has been all this time, money and effort spent on moving forward with more slaughter capacity - is it all going to be for naught if the animals can be shipped live somewhere?

This is one of the major concerns that I have with respect to building slaughter capacity. It seems to me that we have to be willing to utilize it even when the border opens again, or perhaps in spite of the border opening.

The plants will not survive if they don't get put to good use and have a steady supply of cattle. There are huge concerns about the availability of cattle to plants if the bid price is 10 cents more than what the plants are offering.

The desire at the moment is for more packing capacity - will it hold when things open up?

[cakadu]

Sorry Cakadu. The live cattle spoke of are replacement Dairy females. However this type of opening would have to also allow for other cattle which would include purebred beef stock.

[whiteface]

We've known all along that USDA is scaring, bullying, blaming and definatly cutting Canada out of the mix in getting any trade to other countries started up again, but to hear it again has me furious to the point I can hardly speak (or type). I just hope to Christ somebody above us who makes the rules is getting on with our own ability to kill, market and ship our own product NOW before the U.S. figures out that coverups, bullying and having no traceback don't work with smarter nations like Asia. We know Mexico is on our side, because we're nice to them, we're honest, let's work our A$$'$ off to get them their dairy heifers and beef breeding stock. Randy, I so appreciate your ability to speak for so many of us at these meetings and be able to come back and inform us of what's "really" going on. I will be emailing a few people this morning about just how pissed off I am that when just about the time I feel like we're making some progress and inroads with America they stick the knife in further and twist it. I'm so furious to hear that update on trade sanctions and bullying I could just...
about understand some countries hate and methods of dealing with the States via the skies.
I have to go before I say anything else I might regret.
Thanks again Randy, you're awesome!

[cakadu]

Regardless of what animals are wanted live elsewhere, it still begs the question of what will happen if and when live cattle are allowed to go outside of Canada.

Some people have worked very hard to get new plants up and running - yourself included rp - and I for one would really not want to see all of that hard work go out the window once live cattle can move again.

Yes, Australia ships live all the time and they could in fact ship to the US. I don't know all of the details of the trade agreement that was signed between those two countries, but it would stand to reason that if allowed to, Australia could and would ship live animals to the US, so where would that leave us?

How can we hope to maintain these up and coming plants if the bid price being offered on live cattle is enough to entice animals away from these plants?

One of the biggest struggles that co-ops have had in the past is maintaining a steady supply when producers could get even a nickel more for their animals elsewhere. These types of issues are not small hurdles to overcome.

[cowman]

Linda: The way I see it is this. You can not compete with the USA once the border opens! These ideas of being competitive(except in a niche market) are basically a pipedream. That is why the system evolved into what it was pre-BSE?
Now I've said before a cow plant makes sense? IBP/Cargill really don't care about this market that much and it is very unlikely the border will open for cows in the next five years? So yes, a cow plant makes a lot of sense right now? What will happen to it when the border opens down the road in five years?...well what happened in the past?
At the end of the day nothing is going to change! That is my prediction and I suspect I will get beat on here for giving it...but we will see in five years?

[ALICIA]

If show cattle can cross the border and then go back. Then I would think that cattle going throw the states would be all most the same thing.

[grassguy]

I figure this line of IBP not being concerned about killing cows will be a crock the first opportunity they have to get back into it, at present they are not allowed to kill fats and cows in the same plant. Another way to run these new plants out of business is to undercut them out the backdoor.i.e.Sell to safeway or whoever at a discount. The new plants must have a unique product and develop customer loyalty. Mexico wishes to do business with Canada, but their big export is feeders into the US. If they go agin the USDA their border may get closed. Fair trade so long as it is in their favour.