EDMONTON – Canadian beef producers must wait a few more months before the American border reopens to cattle younger than 30 months, says an official with the United States Department of Agriculture.
“I will tell you we are looking at months, not years, for animals below 30 months,” Bill Hawks, undersecretary for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programs, told rural government officials at an Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties special information meeting about bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
“I cannot give you a specific time. We are working to make sure this happens sooner rather than later.”
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Under American rules and regulations, the USDA must propose a rule on allowing live cattle younger than 30 months to enter the U.S. from Canada, and send it to the Office of Management and Budget for more scrutiny. The proposed rule is then published in the federal registry and a 60-day comment period is allowed. Those comments are analyzed and the new rule is published.
“We’re working as hard as we can to make this work,” he said. “We’re not holding back, we’re not dragging our feet to move forward with this.”
He also said the delay has nothing to do with politics.
“I can assure you it is not a political issue. There may have been political overtones at some point, but we are evaluating this as our largest trading partner. We are not looking at this as a political issue, but a science-based, decision-based process.”
Steve Kay, editor of American Cattle Buyers Weekly, said all the rule-making stages take time.
“I really believe we won’t see any imports of live cattle for another five or six months,” he said.
Once the border is reopened to cattle younger than 30 months, the demand for Canadian cattle may not be as great as hoped, he said.
Now, Canadian packers must check the teeth of each animal slaughtered to assure the animals are younger than 30 months. Kay wondered how many American packers would be willing to do dental checks of each imported Canadian animal.
“Who is going to be responsible for verification of age if they’re sent across the border?” Kay said.
“Does that mean U.S. packers will be responsible for all cattle? I believe packers who want to verify the age of live cattle shipments will be limited.”
Canadian boneless beef from animals younger than 30 months is now allowed into the U.S. under a permit process. As of the end of September, 281 permits had been issued from 615 applications received. Of that, 975 consignments of beef, representing 12,307 tonnes, moved across the border.
Hawks said the USDA is also working on developing rules for allowing older cattle into the country. Because older animals have a higher risk of getting BSE, a committee must make recommendations on how the rules should be developed.
“We will base these decisions on our rules. I see no reason to think that trade won’t resume.”
