Canadian government ministers fanned out across the world this week with one simple message to traditional buyers of Canadian beef – open your borders. The product is safe.
In Mexico for a meeting of leaders of the Americas, prime minister Paul Martin was to meet United States president George W. Bush Jan. 13. In Ottawa before he left, Martin said “the Canadian case is, the science dictates that these markets should be open to Canadian beef.”
In South Korea, Japan and Washington, agriculture minister Bob Speller carried the same message, along with representatives of the beef industry. The whirlwind trip was put together to try to allay foreign fears that a second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy from an Alberta-born cow sold into the United States does not mean the disease is out of control.
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“The science says it shouldn’t matter if there is another case,” Speller said in a Jan. 8 interview before leaving for the week-long, three-nation trip that also includes a meeting with Mexican agriculture secretary Javier Usabiaga in Washington.
“And more than likely there may be one or two more cases in North America somewhere, but that does not increase the risk and does not justify keeping borders closed.”
Trade minister Jim Peterson was to make the same argument in Washington Jan. 12 in a meeting with U.S. trade officials. And Saskatchewan agriculture minister Clay Serby said he would raise BSE with Americans while he attends the Legislative Agricultural Chairs Summit in New Orleans Jan. 16-18 as one of two Canadians invited.
Before he left, Speller said he did not expect instant results from his travels.
He particularly wants to find out what Asian markets want Canada to do to win re-entry to the market.
“I will be making the case to them that they should be opening their borders and I will be showing them what we’ve done, telling them about our plan to increase surveillance, tracking and tracing,” he said.
“I will be asking them if there is a process we could set up and what are those things they would like to see us do.”
After his first meeting in Seoul with agriculture minister Huh Sang-man Jan. 12, Speller’s prediction of no quick progress was confirmed. He left the South Korean capital with a promise from the Koreans that they will continue to talk to Canada but nothing else.
“I’m not expecting to go over there and suddenly convince these guys to open up the market,” he said in Ottawa before he left.
“But I want to make sure they have a good understanding of the Canadian case first hand and the scientific evidence that validates our case.”
Speller’s decision to take beef sector leaders and opposition MPs on a trip to Asia addressed complaints from critics of the former Liberal government.
They said not enough was done to try to deal directly with the Japanese and learn their concerns after the first case of Canadian BSE was discovered in May 2003.
