Canadian officials plan to have export paperwork ready three weeks before the U.S. border opens to older Canadian cattle on Nov. 19.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency started meetings in the United States last week after regulations known as Rule 2, which will allow imports of older Canadian cattle into the U.S., were published in the federal register. The CFIA hoped to work through required certification procedures that would be required, which include individual animal identification and proof of age documentation because all cattle entering the U.S. from Canada must be born after March 1, 1999, to be eligible.
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“Obviously, if there are legal and congressional interventions, that changes the date potentially, but we are focused on Nov. 19 as the effective date,” said Brian Evans, executive vice-president of the agency.
“The hope and expectation is that the market does in fact open on Nov. 19 and that we will have that information in the hands of the industry and the hands of the accredited vets in terms of live animal movement for at least three weeks before the market opens,” he said.
All Canadian cattle imports were banned in the U.S. when BSE was first discovered in Canada in 2003. The restrictions were relaxed in 2005 to allow cattle younger than 30 months of age. Under the new minimum risk rule, requirements such as pregnancy checking of females no longer apply. Evans hopes to eventually see the import rules eased even more.
“Hopefully, to a large extent, other than the age restriction we are back to pre-2003. The rule was intended to get us back to where we were,” he said.
The main stumbling block is proving birth dates, especially for cull cows going straight to slaughter.
“We have to accept a certain number of cull cows will be staying in Canada for slaughter,” Evans said.
Purebred dairy and beef animals have that information on their registration papers, but commercial animals around eight years old usually lack that information. Tattoos, farm records or checking the animal’s teeth may not work.
“My expectation is that we will be confronted with a challenge,” said Evans.
The rule takes effect during the fall show season and animals should be able to move back and forth for exhibition with little difficulty.
The next issue for Canadian cattle producers is to get cattle into Mexico where there has been a large demand for beef and dairy heifers. The U.S. would not allow Canadian stock on their soil, so once the new American rule is in place, provisions can be made to renew trade with Mexico.
“Mexico had always signaled to us that they would not expand their market access until the U.S. had similar market access and the U.S. position was that they could not allow in transit of anything they would not allow into the country,” Evans said.
Canada changed its rule to allow imports of American animals nearly two years ago but there was little traffic due to lower prices and additional paperwork required to bring them in.
“There have been a lot of reasons people have been hesitant to bring animals in and we want to rebuild confidence in animals travelling both ways,” said Evans.
Another rule is required to allow wider movement in goats, sheep and cervids.
