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Christmas 1998 might bring a welcome gift or a lump of coal for Canadian beef producers, depending how the American department of commerce rules on countervail duty and anti-dumping suits filed against live cattle imports.
A decision from the department is expected Dec. 22.
In testimony before the United States International Trade Commission last week, Canadian industry representatives said Canada’s live cattle exports are too small to substantially harm U.S. producers. In fact, if there are inequities, it is on the Canadian side.
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“We pointed out to them the average man, woman and child consumes $216 worth of U.S. agrifood products, whereas the average American consumes about $31 (U.S.) of Canadian products,” said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Ben Thorlakson, president of the CCA, told the ITC that Canada’s share of the U.S. live cattle market is “less than four percent and declining.”
Figures from Canfax show the number of live animals going south has declined every year.
“We’re going to be down in 1998 exports of live cattle. We were down in 1997. Our peak numbers were in 1996. If we weren’t dumping in 1996, how are we dumping in 1998?” said Anne Dunford of Canfax, a Canadian livestock consulting firm.
In 1996, a record 1.3 million slaughters animals were shipped stateside.
Meanwhile, the Northwest Pilot Project has allowed more than 19,000 feeder cattle into Canada from Montana this fall. The project was designed by the two countries to improve the access of U.S. feeder cattle into Canadian feedlots and will be expanded to include participation from 26 states following an agreement signed Dec. 4.
The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Foundation, a U.S. grassroots group, filed petitions with the department of commerce Oct. 1 asking for an investigation into whether Mexico and Canada are dumping cattle below production costs into the U.S. market.
R-CALF filed a third petition the same day asking for a probe into whether countervailing duties on live cattle imports from Canada are warranted.
The commerce department had 20 days after receiving a petition to decide whether to launch an investigation. But in R-CALF’s case, the department has already taken 60 days and still has not announced a decision.
Commerce officials are having difficulty determining whether the minimum threshold of at least 25 percent of the U.S. cattle industry supports pursuing the import investigations.
Although groups whose combined gross membership more than exceeds 25 percent of the industry have filed statements supporting the petitions, the agency is concerned about double counting individuals who may belong to more than one group.
Commerce can decide to accept or reject any of three petitions without regard to the others. If a petition is rejected, the case ends. If accepted, a further investigation is required to determine if anti-dumping or countervailing duties are warranted.
