HARTNEY, Man. – Canada’s cattle industry saw compelling grounds for a challenge under the North American Free Trade Agreement against the closure of the United States border to Canadian beef and cattle this year.
But the reasons for not pursuing that challenge were even more compelling, said Betty Green, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association.
An industry sentiment was that a NAFTA challenge could easily tie the issue up before a trade tribunal for three to four years, Green said. It was possible that during that period of legal wrangling, the U.S. border would have stayed closed to Canadian beef and cattle imports, she said.
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Instead, the industry favoured another option, namely negotiating the reopening of the border based on scientific evaluations of the BSE risk in Canada and the degree of risk to countries importing Canadian cattle and beef.
And Green said there was another reason why a NAFTA challenge seemed less appealing: countries do not always fare well when they get into a trade scrap with the U.S.
“We decided that strong-arming a bully would not be a good idea,” Green said during a district meeting of the MCPA Nov. 6 in Hartney.
