Washington, D.C. – Charging
that continuing to enforce a ban on importing
older cattle is “arbitrary and capricious,”
the American Meat Institute (AMI) today filed
a lawsuit in U.S. District Court saying there
is no legal or scientific justification for
continuing to ban Canadian cattle 30 months of
age and older.
The filing came a day
after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
posted for display at the Federal Register a
new rule affecting beef and cattle imports.
The ban on Canadian cattle and beef dates back
to May 2003, when Canada diagnosed a single
case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
in an Alberta cow.
In its pleadings,
AMI said that USDA continues to ban the
importation of Canadian cattle 30 months and
older and that this is “scientifically
insupportable and is therefore arbitrary and
capricious and contrary to law, in violation of
the Administration Procedure Act.” The
Institute made clear that it is not challenging
the rule announced yesterday, but is seeking an
injunction against enforcement of the original
May 2003 ban.
Under international trade
guidelines set by the Office of International
Epizootics (OIE), Canada’s response to the
May 2003 BSE case and the system it established
long before to ensure cattle health and the
ability to identify and trace livestock, are
more than adequate to justify full trade in
cattle and beef products with Canada regardless
of an animal’s age.
In his opening
statement at a press conference held today at
AMI’s Washington, DC, offices, Mark Dopp, the
Institute's senior vice president for
regulatory affairs and general counsel, said
that there is no scientific justification for
the ban and that a “partial” trade
reopening announced yesterday does not address
the concerns detailed in the lawsuit.
Dopp shared the following scenario:
“Once upon a time there were two calves in
Flaxton, North Dakota -- Bossie and Bessie.
Then Farmer John sold Bessie to Farmer Jacques
in Oxbow, Saskatchewan,” Dopp said. “Under
the rule that USDA has just published, when
Farmer Jacques seeks to sell Bessie, now 31
months old, to a packer in North Dakota, he
won’t be allowed to do so. Instead, he’ll
send her to a packer in Moose Jaw, who can ship
the beef back to the retail grocer in Flaxton,
North Dakota.”
According to AMI, the
May 2003 border closing has caused Canada to
expand its slaughtering capacity by building
new plants and adding shifts to existing
plants. Meanwhile, many U.S. packers have been
hit hard economically by short cattle supplies
and high prices for lean beef and cows. And
ultimately, the consumer has paid the price in
the form of higher prices for beef and products
made with beef.
Dopp noted that some
cattle producers in the Northern Tier states
support maintaining a ban on all beef and
cattle trade with Canada. “Those who hold
this view are taking a narrow-minded,
short-term approach to what will become a
long-term problem if fundamental economic
restructuring continues in the Canadian packing
industry,” Dopp said. “Instead of behaving
like the Hatfields and McCoys, which seems to
be what some groups prefer, we need to behave
like the integrated North American meat
industry that we have become.”
The
complaint noted that under OIE guidelines,
Canadian cattle born after the implementation
of the Canada’s feed ban in 1997 – rather
than the much more restrictive under-30-month
limit set in the final rule – could be
imported into the United States.
Dopp
also called “utterly irresponsible and
unscientific” attempts to justify this
partial ban with claims that Canadian beef and
cattle are somehow “less safe” than U.S.
beef and cattle. “We’ve said it before
and we’ll say it again. Calling Canadian beef
unsafe is like calling your twin sister
ugly,” Dopp said. “The U.S. and Canada
both have implemented state-of-the-art, meat
inspection and animal disease prevention
systems. As we look across the borders, we see
near mirror images of one another.”
AMERICAN MEAT INSTITUTE FILES CHALLENGE TO CONTINUING BAN ON CANADIAN CATTLE
Thursday, December 30, 2004
For more information contact:
David Ray Vice President, Public Affairs 202-587-4243 dray@meatinstitute.org |
Janet Riley Sr. VP, Public Affairs 202-587-4245 jriley@meatinstitute.org |

