01/19/05 The change of tune?, finale

01/19/05 The change of tune?, finale

One thing should be made perfectly clear. There is still disagreement of sorts over how best to proceed with the potential reopening of the U.S. border to Canadian live cattle and beef products currently under a ban in place since May of 2003, when a case of b.s.e. was discovered in an Alberta cow. Sure, there have been signs in the form of statements made by individuals connected to parties closely involved with the matter & signs that there may be a change in previous thoughts that Canadian beef trade would resume in March when a U.S.D.A. final rule takes effect. For example, U.S.D.A. Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley saying his agency would only reconsider its position on reopening the border after hearing from a U.S. technical team studying Canada's most recent cases of b.s.e. In another case, the Executive Board of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association strongly questioning the final rule to resume beef trade with Canada as currently proposed by U.S.D.A. The concerns from both a safety and economic standpoint, and proposed solutions by N.C.B.A., were expressed through their C.E.O., Terry Stokes. STOKES: And as we look at resumption of trade and while we got to use science as a basis for doing this, this issue of economic risk and harm is a big one. Now for the record, U.S.D.A. remains firmly committed to implementing the final rule on March 7th. And N.C.B.A.'s membership has not formally voted on whether or not to support the final rule as currently written. That will come during the annual stakeholders meeting next month. But yet the recent statements seem to have warmed the heart of one of the agriculture groups opposed to resuming beef trade with Canada. The opposition from R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A. remains strong, as evidenced by their recent lawsuit to halt implementation of the final rule. Now R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A. C.E.O. Bill Bullard will be the first to admit that there are still several issues that divide his organization and N.C.B.A. including how best to handle Canada and whether or not to resume trade. But having said that, he is pleased by N.C.B.A.'s Executive Board's recent call for greater study of the matter. Now whether or not U.S.D.A. will have a change of opinion on the final rule as written may be another matter. BULLARD: We understand now that there is a division in the government. You have the scientists and then you have the policy makers. We understand that the scientists are beginning to question the prudence of going forward with these rules. The policy makers represented by Secretary Veneman has not yet made that call so we don't know what U.S.D.A. is going to do.
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