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USDA urged to delay opening U.S. border to Canadian cattle
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture, Terry Peach said recently he is asking incoming Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to delay opening America's borders to Canadian cattle and beef products until a thorough assessment of that country's enforcement of cattle feed laws is complete.
"The news coming out of Canada has been unsettling to most of our cattlemen," Peach said. "The latest Canadian cow diagnosed with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was born seven months after the feed ban went in to effect and the cattleman who owned the cow said he purchased the feed supplement that proved to be contaminated a full year after the ban.
"We are now being told that the Canadian feed ban may not have been enforced as strictly as the U.S. ban," he said. "Our cattlemen have already lost a tremendous amount of export trade due to one imported Canadian cow being found in the state of Washington. We can't afford for that to happen again."
He said the issue is important to reopen trade with importers such as Japan, Mexico and South Korea and has nothing to do with food safety.
"Our rules and laws regarding meat processing and handling are in place to prevent specified risk materials from ever entering the human food chain," Peach added. "The entire issue is regaining the trade we lost last year. We've only recovered about one quarter of the $3.86 billion in export sales we had prior to December 2003."
Peach said Governor Henry supports postponing reopening the border. He also said he has been working with Oklahoma congressional delegates to convey their message to USDA.
"My initial contacts have been with the offices of Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn as well as Congressmen Frank Lucas and Dan Boren and I believe they are in agreement that the border opening needs to be delayed," Peach said. "I hope they can convince the administration in USDA that the current plan to reopen the border is premature."
He said he is also encouraging congressional leaders to call for rules that would not flood the U.S. market if Canada's feed ban enforcement is determined to be effective.
"Canada's cattle herd has grown tremendously since we closed our borders to them in 2003," he said. "Throwing open our doors to every Canadian bovine under 30 months of age could devastate our producers. We need to have guidelines that will allow them to enter our border in a controlled, orderly fashion."
Date: 1/27/05
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