U.S. Trade
The rule to permit the import of Canadian feeder and slaughter cattle under 30 months of age and an expanded list of beef products, including beef from animals over 30 months, was published in the U.S. Federal Register on January 4. These products will be eligible for export March 7.

Publication of the rule is the result of a tremendous amount of work on both sides of the border. The cattle industry continues to recognize the need to expand slaughter capacity in Canada and the Canadian Cattlemen's Association remains committed to finding solutions to this issue. Work is also continuing on regaining access for all categories of live cattle, including breeding cattle. Regaining and expanding markets for Canadian beef around the world remains a priority. It's anticipated that other markets will follow the lead of the United States and adopt similar science-based measures.

New Cases of BSE
Confirmation of two additional cases of BSE, one on January 2 and one on January 11, was not unexpected. Risk assessments in Canada and the U.S. had concluded it was not unlikely a few additional cases would be found on either side of the border. At current levels, surveillance being carried out is well above the level recommended by the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) and the two diagnoses indicate that the surveillance program is successfully finding any BSE cases that may exist. Animal Health experts believe the level of BSE in North America is very low and declining as a result of appropriate mitigation measures, including the ruminant to ruminant feed ban introduced in 1997. All the necessary precautions are in place to ensure food safety, especially the precautionary measure of removing all parts of an animal at slaughter that have the potential to carry infectivity in the remote case that an animal is positive for BSE. In both cases, no parts of the animal entered the food or animal feed systems.

Impact on Re-opening of U.S. Border
Following the January 2 announcement the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued reassurances that the announcement of another case of BSE made on January 2 would not impact the U.S. decision to re-open the border to live feeder and slaughter cattle under 30 months and an expanded list of beef products. The rule to allow importation of these products was written to take into account that a few additional cases of BSE would likely be found in Canada.

Following the January 11 announcement USDA issued a statement saying it remains confident that the animal and public health measures that Canada has in place to prevent BSE, combined with existing U.S. domestic safeguards, provides the utmost protections to U.S. consumers and livestock. However since the case announced January 11 was born after the implementation of the ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban, USDA is sending a technical team to Canada to evaluate the circumstances. This coordinates with the January 11 announcement by Federal Minister of Agriculture Andy Mitchell that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will undertake a review of Canada's feed controls involving experts from interested third parties to clearly demonstrate the strength of the ban and the job it's intended to do, to be completed prior to March 7. The result of the investigation and analysis will be used by USDA to evaluate appropriate next steps.

Canada's Feed Ban
While the feed ban was implemented in August, 1997, there was no recall issued at that time on feed ingredients already in the system. The March, 1998 birth date of the BSE case announced January 11 is likely the result of exposure to pre-feed ban feed that was still residual in the system and at this stage of the investigation does not indicate a lack of feed ban compliance. CCA has confidence in our regulators to ensure the effectiveness of the ban. The low incidence of BSE in Canada, as shown by the surveillance program, is evidence that the ban is working. The CCA has been urging the CFIA to be more proactive in demonstrating to Canadians and to our trading partners the effectiveness of the Canadian feed ban. CCA fully supports a review and validation of the implementation of Canada's feed ban.

Strategy for Recovery
On September 10 the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA) welcomed Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Andy Mitchell's announcement of further measures in support of the beef cattle industry. These measures are consistent with the CCA's Strategic Plan for the Beef Cattle Industry that was unanimously approved by the CCA Board of Directors at its Semi-Annual meeting on August 20. (The CCA Strategic Plan is available on the CCA website www.cattle.ca )

In the strategy developed by the CCA, CCA advocated that the expansion of processing capacity through the opening of new plants and the expansion of current processing facilities be given the highest priority. The Federal Government has committed $66 Million to help with these efforts. Over-supply of market-ready cattle compared to capacity available to slaughter them has been the cause of decreased cattle prices throughout the BSE crisis. Until extra slaughter capacity comes online we have to better match the number of cattle coming to market with the processing capacity available. That's why the CCA advocated for, and the Federal Government included in its strategy, set-aside programs for market-ready cattle and for younger animals. The set-aside programs have seen strong producer participation and have helped contribute to stabilized prices. Other aspects of the Strategic Plan include expansion of domestic and export markets for Canadian beef, addressing cash flow issues, enhancing movement tracking of cattle and age verification, and continuing to meet Canada's BSE surveillance targets. In a news conference held January 11 Minister Mitchell stated Canada will stand by affected industry sectors and the repositioning strategy.

Off-Shore Imports
The suspension on the granting of supplementary import permits (supplementary Tariff Rate Quota) for off-shore beef continues, although the Ministers of Agriculture and International Trade have consented to allowing emergency supplementary imports under a very strict protocol. It's CCA's position that we should eliminate the issuance of supplementary permits to encourage more processing capacity in Canada. However we must also realize that at the present rate of slaughter of mature animals that normally displace the non-NAFTA imports, products may be needed in the interim until additional capacity comes on stream. What we must ensure is that no one is trying to circumvent the process by finding loopholes in which to bring in product unless it is absolutely necessary. CCA has a representative on the advisory committee on Tariff Rate Quota and we continue to monitor the process very closely.