U.S. policy is hypocritical

Dear Pete,

It was good to have a visit with you again in early February; I always look forward to reading and reviewing your paper with an eye to keeping up with what is going on in the industry. My response is based on what I found offensive, and laughable, in the March 10th article by Tait Berlier on “Texas blocks the flow of Canadian cattle.” Let me preface my remarks by saying that when the dust settles from the BSE debacle, it will turn out to be one of the most costly political scaremongering antics of all time in our industry. All countries involved in this charade have behaved irresponsibly. Australia is the only country that handled the risk analysis intelligently and adequately; they, of course, subsequently took advantage of the situation in North America by whipping up food safety concerns in Asia at the expense of North America. BSE is not a food safety issue; and when the proper interventions are followed (removal of SRM’s), the risk of transmission becomes extremely low.

When Texas AG Commissioner Todd Staples says he is disappointed with Canada for signing a protocol inconsistent with international standards and it is paramount to ensure trade decisions are based on sound science, not political science, I laughed out loud! What an incredibly hypocritical statement and position to take; he need only to have looked in the mirror to find the nearest country guilty of that. Surely your reporter and your magazine should understand the history of the trading relationship between Canada and Mexico better than reiterating this holier than thou perspective. Mexico has been willing to go ahead and move towards normalizing trade for nearly three years with Canada, but has been held in check by the U.S. threatening to close the border to Mexican cattle if they went ahead and did this. Do you think there was any sound science behind that position?

When the reporter quotes numerous producer groups being opposed to these shipments, and supporting the Texas Department of Agriculture on this decision, perhaps it should be noted that Mr. Kiker and Mr. McDonnell have been part of the R-CALF group which has had a very protectionist attitude for some time. This group has not been intelligent enough to understand the potential damage they are doing to the cattle industry as a whole and the American position worldwide, nor do they comprehend the bigger picture on the advantages of free trade. I know each of them will trot out the stats that Canada has had more cases of BSE, but let’s not be absurd; we all know the sordid story of the last couple of months and the black eyes the industry has received because of poor judgment. The template for how this animal disease got a foothold in North America is the same on both sides of the border; let’s try to be honest about it.