If there was one thing Alberta Conservative MP Monte Solberg learned last week as he travelled the world with agriculture minister Bob Speller selling the Canadian beef message, it was how political an issue it is.
For months, the Red Deer MP and his colleagues in the former Canadian Alliance Party have been hammering the Liberal government for not doing enough to get the world’s borders open to Canadian beef after a case last summer of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The scientific basis for reopening is clear, they have argued. What has been lacking is Canadian political effort.
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Last week, Solberg heard Speller and Canadian beef industry leaders make the scientific case for open borders in Japan, South Korea and Washington.
Speller returned to Canada with promises of understanding and further co-operation but no apparent movement toward opening borders.
“It is amazing how political this is,” Solberg said in a Jan. 16 interview from Washington. “I think there is a consensus forming that borders should open this year but it will take a political intervention to make that happen. At this point (in the U.S.) there is a lack of leadership at the top that prevents this from happening.”
He said it will require a decision by U.S. president George Bush that Canadian beef is as safe as American beef and the border should open.
In Washington, where Speller met with American agriculture secretary Ann Veneman and Mexican secretary Javier Usabiaga, there was agreement to increase rule standardization and to accept that the beef industry is North American and not country-specific.
However, at a Jan. 16 news conference, Veneman gave no indication when the U.S. will make a decision on allowing live imports of young Canadian cattle, saying “that’s still under consideration.”
A consultation period on whether the border should reopen ended Jan. 5.
Speller told reporters that there was agreement the three countries must work together.
“There’s work to be done,” he said. “We will give the political leadership needed to work on these issues.”
At a meeting in Mexico during a summit of the Americas, Bush also assured prime minister Paul Martin that the Americans recognize BSE is a North American and not only a Canadian problem.
“We’ll work on it to find common solutions,” Bush said.
But there was no promise of a quick border opening.
Likewise in Tokyo, Speller was told that Japan’s preferred solution would be to have all cattle sold to Japan tested. However, Japanese officials agreed to work with Canada to find an approach that would offer “equivalency” in ensuring food safety.
Speller said an official from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will be stationed in Tokyo to work with Japanese officials until acceptable rules can be worked out.
“I found in Japan it was really difficult to figure out exactly what they were promising because they tended to talk around the issues a lot,” said Solberg. “But I think on the equivalency issue and not demanding that testing every animal is the only solution, they were cutting us some slack and that is progress.”
