03/08/05 What`s new with beef?, Pt.2

03/08/05 What`s new with beef?, Pt.2

A lot has happened over the past week over the U.S. beef industry, from where it is as far as Canadian live cattle thirty months and younger and beef from such cattle coming in to our nation, where we are as far as getting our beef into Japan, and how it seems the political process into this whole matter is getting more political. A House Ag Committee hearing on the Canada situation expanded to the Japanese dilemma and what it will take to get U.S. beef back into that, and other Asian markets. Japanese government officials are telling the U.S. to be patient with their long-drawn out regulatory process to lift the current ban on our beef. Their words come amid growing sentiment among members of Congress, and cattle industry types like Jim McAdams of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, that retaliatory sanctions against Japan should be enacted the longer our beef stays out. MCADAMS: Many of our major trading partners still will not allow our product. We cattlemen expect that the government will insure that we're treated fairly in the international arena. And when our trading partners don't use sound science to base their rules upon, when they don't follow the rules, and when they don't negotiate in good faith, we expect our government to defend us by using all the tools necessary including economic sanctions. And in a way, McAdams got his wish, through a House non-binding resolution stating Japan either reopens its border to our beef, or face economic sanctions from the U.S. It is in part a reaction to two arguments & one is that to counter any new Canadian beef coming into the U.S., we need to get other markets like Japan open, and the other is Japan will only accept U.S. beef if we take Canadian product first. R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A. and its C.E.O. Bill Bullard will tell you that second argument, whether based on sound science or economics, is illogical. BULLARD: Japan closed its border because it was concerned that we were not serious about protecting our beef supply from a known risk of b.s.e. that exist in Canada. That is one reason why R-C.A.L.F went to court to temporarily halt the U.S. resuming the acceptance of certain Canadian cattle and beef products. But it does not plan to stop there, as their goal is a two prong approach of a permanent injunction to keep the Canadian cattle and beef out, and pressure on Congress to overturn the minimum risk rule for Canada. So will U.S.D.A. counter, and if so, how? The details are coming up on our next program.
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