Posted on 03/16/2005 12:33:58 PM PST by TXBSAFH
Cattlemen challenge border closing under NAFTA Last Updated Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:27:21 EST CBC News PICTURE BUTTE, ALTA. - Some Canadian cattle farmers took their arguments to reopen the U.S. border to NAFTA on Wednesday, saying the closure is a trade and investment dispute, not a response to the health threat of mad cow disease.
INDEPTH: Mad Cow Disease
The Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade is claiming damages under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They say the actions of the U.S. government have given an unfair advantage to its own investors.
The lobby group says it represents more than 100 family businesses across Canada. It says their losses as a result of the closed border are more than $300 million.
FROM MARCH 2, 2005: U.S. court blocks Canadian cattle
The U.S. government banned imports of Canadian cattle in May 2003 after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was found in Alberta.
Two years on, Rick Paskal, a founding member of the cattlemen's lobby group, says the border closing is about trade and investment, not health and food safety.
"Free trade is on trial in this case," said Paskal.
"The United States government ... has collected ample evidence to show that Canadian livestock does not present a health risk."
Washington to counter injunction
A plan to reopen the border to young live cattle on March 7 was scuttled by a court challenge from a protectionist group of U.S. cattle farmers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture was expected on Wednesday to announce how it would fight the Montana court ruling that kept the border shut.
Pair caught smuggling cows
And two men, one Canadian and one American, were charged on Wednesday with trying to smuggle Canadian cattle across the closed border last summer.
A federal grand jury charged Louis Jacobs of Snye, Que., and Andrew Derouchie from Fort Covington, N.Y., of trying to smuggle six cows into the U.S. in August.
The cattle were seized and returned to Canada, where they were destroyed. No signs of mad cow disease were found in any of them.
Claiming damages under Chapter 11 before they have to file Chapter 11.
Another good deal from shafta.
Can't they kill the cows first, then send the meat over, or is that banned, too?
NAFTA's unintended consequences ping
Both are banned due to health concerns. Mad cow disease kills.
Most American beef producers do not want any Canadian beef in the US system. If Canada gets its way, the cattle farmers know they are doomed. Look at Europe, most people now eat pork or chicken.
This is one of many reasons to drop the shafta agreement.
Ping
Canadian beef imports, animals being slaughtered there and the meat being brought over, has been happening since Aug. 2003. The protectionists here would love to get that shut off as well.
You are wrong on that. Both counts.
"Free trade is on trial in this case," said Paskal.
"The United States government ... has collected ample evidence to show that Canadian livestock does not present a health risk."
These statements are correct.
I thought that was all correct which makes the recent decision all the more ludicrous.
I don't know about any fear for supply. Steak and burgers are still pretty much on everyone's plate, these days. There's a huge demand for cattle, not to mention other products, leather goods, etc. The US doesn't need to import water, unless the northern tier is getting runoff from Canada. That I don't know. It's more a convenience, I think, that beef is also supplied by other countries, as well as out of season produce, and so on. But if one or another were restricted, I don't know that Americans would notice, or if explained to them would necessarily even complain. The local Starbucks, now, might have a problem if this went to coffee beans. But I'd like to see fewer of those stores, anyway.
Eggsactly! The damned politicians could care less about the farmer and the consumer. Canadian Cattlemen can't sell their cows and the American consumer is hijacked by a lobby group and pays through the nose for beef products due to lack of supply. The herd is not Canadian or American, it is North American and has been for 100 years. Canadian beef is among the safest and best in the world and downer cows a hazard of the trade on both sides of the border. New Science and improved feed guidelines have reduced the incidence to a bare minimum, yet we all are tainted because stupid politicians now set the agenda. I am not criticizing the U.S.A. you have a right to be pissed, it just galls me that Conservative Western Canadian salt of the earth Cattlemen eventually pay the price.
Using the pretext of 'public welfare' for special interest deals and general corruption and economic stagnation? Whats new?
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