Beef Imports from Canada Expected To Resume Within Days

Appeals court ruling allows implementation of "mad cow" rule

By Bruce Odessey
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns says he expects the United States will begin importing cattle from Canada within days because a federal appeals court has lifted a preliminary injunction blocking suspension of a two-year-old rule on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

In a July 15 teleconference with reporters, Johanns also indicated that the United States was losing patience with Japan's continued ban on U.S. beef over BSE.

At issue is the discovery of BSE in three cattle in Canada and one animal in the United States -- all Canadian-born -- in 2003 and in an animal in Texas in June.  Following the 2003 discovery of BSE in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state, most foreign markets banned U.S. beef and cattle products.

The United States banned all cattle imports from Canada in May 2003 and since has relaxed portions of the ban.  In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a rule that would create a category of "minimal risk" foreign regions, including Canada, that could export cattle to the U.S. market.

U.S. slaughterhouses that have lost business and jobs over the past two years supported the rule.

In March, however, a federal court judge in Montana, which borders Canada, imposed a preliminary injunction blocking USDA from implementing the minimal-risk rule until he could consider objections raised by a U.S. group of cattlemen.

On July 14, a federal appeals court in Seattle repealed for now the preliminary injunction, issuing a two-paragraph ruling and intending to release a longer opinion soon.

Whether the cattlemen's group will further appeal the latest ruling is not yet clear.  A hearing in the Montana federal court on the merits of the group's complaints is scheduled for the end of July.  After that hearing, the judge could issue another injunction against USDA's rule.

"We will be moving as expeditiously as possible to begin importing Canadian cattle," Johanns said, "but, of course, we would do so carefully to ensure that the minimal risk rule criteria are clearly met."

He said that before imports from Canada resume USDA would issue standard operating procedures, issue a list of approved products and make sure that U.S. customs and veterinary inspection systems are properly in place.

"We have not set a date ... our hope is that we're talking about days and not weeks," Johanns said.  "It could be as early as next week."

Johanns was speaking from Madagascar, one of the stops on a trip that took him to bilateral meetings with China in Beijing and an informal World Trade Organization trade ministers' meeting in Dalian, China.  From Madagascar he is traveling to an Africa Growth and Opportunity Act meeting in Senegal.

In China, Johanns met with the agriculture minister from Japan, which was the top foreign market for U.S. beef until 2003.  Johanns said he warned the minister that the U.S. Congress soon might press for trade retaliation against Japan unless that country resumes imports of U.S. beef, which he described as safe based on sound scientific practice.

"I indicated to him that we have been very patient working with him to get through their process, but I believe it is time for their process now to come to an end," Johanns said.

After Congress returns in September from an August recess, he said, frustrated members could start paying more attention to whether U.S. beef is entering Japan's market.

"If it is not, there is a point at which Congress does lose patience," Johanns said, "and at that point I would be very, very worried that a course of action would be taken that none of us want."

A USDA news release, a Johanns statement and a Q&A sheet on the imports from Canada can be accessed at the USDA Web site.

 

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)