The municipal council of Stuartburn, Man., is suggesting to its residents that they avoid shopping in North Dakota until the United States reopens its border to Canadian cattle.
The council wants to draw attention to the actions of U.S. senator Byron Dorgan, who, up for re-election this year, has lobbied against removing the BSE ban, ignoring clear science. There is no threat to the U.S. herd because transmission of the disease is only through infected feed. Nor is there a threat to U.S. citizens because transmission is only through specified risk material, mainly brain and nerve tissue, which packers must remove and destroy.
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The Stuartburn resolution will probably have little influence on people’s shopping decisions, but it got media play in North Dakota and helped remind Americans that trade is a two-way street.
Canadian farmers have been frustrated by increasing agricultural trade tensions with the United States. The list is long: BSE has sharply impeded trade in cattle and other ruminants; there are tariffs on wheat trade and continual challenges of the Canadian Wheat Board; a U.S. investigation of Canada’s hog exports has been launched; country-of-origin labelling legislation has been delayed, but not withdrawn; and some senators are lobbying for a challenge of Canadian potato programs.
Most Canadians believe the trade environment has deteriorated while George Bush has been president, but things could get even worse if the Democrats take the White House in November.
Democratic contender John Kerry’s campaign includes a promise to get tougher on trade. He said faulty trade deals are partly behind the economic slowdown and job losses that until recently have plagued the U.S. Kerry has promised to review trade agreements and renegotiate if necessary.
If he is elected president, then protectionist Democratic senators such as Dorgan and fellow North Dakotan Kent Conrad and Tom Daschle of South Dakota – all regular critics of Canadian farm imports and supporters of country-of-origin labelling – would have even more influence.
And that would be bad news for the people of Stuartburn and the rest of Canada’s export-oriented agriculture.
