01/17/05 The change of tune?, Part one

01/17/05 The change of tune?, Part one

U.S.D.A.'s position on reopening the American border to Canadian live cattle and currently banned beef products has been very obvious. We are going to open the border on March 7th. So much so that the implementation would be of a final rule, with no real opportunity for the cattle industry or others to give comment. So much so that even days after the final rule announcement when Canada announced a third b.s.e. case, U.S.D.A. said it would move forward. So much so that when Canada last week announced that it had detected a fourth case of Mad Cow disease in its nation, that it would & that it would take perhaps a more cautious approach? That seemed to be the gist of comments made by U.S.D.A. officials, depending on how one heard them. A team from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is investigating the Canadian b.s.e. cases, especially the most recent, which involved a cow born months after Canada implemented its ruminant to ruminant feed ban. After the technical team issues its finding, U.S.D.A. Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley says then his agency will reconsider whether to allow cattle and beef products from cows thirty months or younger back into the U.S. But despite that statement, Moseley maintains that there right now is no scientific basis, a.k.a. the continuing emergence of b.s.e. cases in Canada, to keep the border closed. MOSELEY: The issue is it a significant level that it would change our strategy. And at this point and time, I don't anticipate from a technical level, anything that's going to change our policy. Now tell that to groups who opposed the reopening of the border for both scientific and economic reasons. But maybe the most telling sign that some reconsideration of U.S.D.A.'s final rule may be needed comes from comments made by the C.E.O. of one of its closest allies in the whole b.s.e. situation. Now the National Cattlemen's Beef Association membership as a whole has never publicly said one way or another if they support the final rule, taking a wait and see approach in studying details of the measure. Such an announcement may not come until next month at their annual stakeholders meeting. However, talk among individual members since the announcement came out leaning towards supporting the final rule. But last week, prior to the latest Canadian b.s.e case being announced, N.C.B.A.'s Executive Board came out with what appeared on the surface as a change in their position. It was later clarified that it was more like strongly worded concerns about the final rule, and some recommendations on behalf of N.C.B.A. Details on those recommendations are discussed in our next program.
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