The setting was different, the Canadian minister was new, but the American response to another Canadian plea to open the border to live cattle trade was the same: stay tuned and don’t rush it.
On Aug. 28, agriculture minister Andy Mitchell travelled to New York City for a first meeting with U.S. agriculture secretary Ann Veneman.
He made the by-now-familiar argument that there is no reasonable scientific basis for keeping the border shut to live cattle exports from Canada. It has been closed since May 20, 2003, when a single case of BSE was found in Alberta.
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A December 2003 BSE case in Washington state that was traced to an Alberta herd added to the delay.
“I urged her to open the border and pointed out there is no valid reason for keeping it closed,” Mitchell said in an Aug. 30 interview.
Veneman’s response, essentially, was to be patient. She and her U.S. Department of Agriculture staff are reviewing American industry comments on the prospect of a border opening and trying to write a rule “that will be very difficult to challenge.”
“I urged her to expedite the process,” he said. “She did not propose a date when she thought it might happen.”
Even though many in the Canadian cattle industry now believe the American election season will delay any border opening, which would be controversial in some states the Republicans hope to win, Mitchell said Veneman did not tie the decision to politics.
“She said there is a process and they want to be sure they get it right,” he said.
The two met in New York City, where Veneman was preparing to attend the Republican party convention that will nominate George Bush to run for a second presidential term.
For more than a year, Bush and members of his administration have been assuring Canadian politicians that science rather than politics will determine the border issue.
The threat of a court challenge from the R-CALF group to any border opening is cited by USDA as the reason for a delay in announcing the proposed rules for a resumption of trade in live animals.
Mitchell said he used the meeting to impress upon Veneman the pain that the closed border is causing Canadian producers. He said he told her that one result will be a Canadian policy of reducing its dependence on shipping cattle south for slaughter at American plants.
He said the closed border and the economic impact felt by Canadian producers affects the entire North American cattle industry. It also reflects badly on the way the world views the North American cattle sector, which it sees as an integrated industry.
