Canadian PoseurFreemarket Tank Releases-Mad Cow and US/Can Trade Study

The Vancouver, British Columbia based Fraser_Institute, has released a US/Canadian trade study focusing on the US policies after the Canadian BSE incidient in May, 2003. The study is titled, "Mad Cow: A Case Study in Canadian-American Relations", and the first paragraph of their news release about it seems satirical: "March 30, 2006 - Vancouver, BC - The US government did not break trade law during the recent mad cow crisis, but applied international rules creatively to minimize trade distortions to the cross-border beef and cattle industry, according to ‘Mad Cow: A Case Study in Canadian-American Relations’, released today by The Fraser Institute." - (emphasis mine) Those Yankee BuShills are great at the creative application of laws and international treaties, eh? Full cite for article: Dr. Alexander Moens, Professor of Political Science Simon Fraser University, "Mad Cow: A Case Study in Canadian-American Relations", Fraser Institute, March 30, 2006 - (direct link to pdf file) In its less than confidence instilling news release, the Fraser Institute also states: "Careful rule-making on the part of the US Department of Agriculture has paid off for Canada. Since the US announced its decision to partially re-open the border, three more Canadian BSE cases have been found but have not affected trade. 'The fact that nearly half a million cattle under 30 months were exported to the US in the second half of 2005 suggests that the Canadian-American trade in cattle and beef will likely return to its high levels before the BSE crisis struck,' Moens noted. [. . .] From 2003 to 2006, both Canada and the US added regulations on meatpacking and animal feed. Canada’s regulations are stricter and produce more risk reduction for BSE than the US regulations. Given that contaminated feed and infected cows originating from Alberta still pose a small risk to free trade, it is important for Canada to keep this edge. Canada should follow this development with confidence-building measures such as joint USDA-Canadian Food Inspection Agency monitoring and inspection of Canadian facilities. Canada should ensure that the compliance rate of its feed mills consistently exceeds US rates. Ah, I feel so much better now. Whatever persons and corporations were responsible for forcing cannibalism onto herds of ruminants bred for human consumption by adding rendered cow carcasses into commercial cattle feed should be tried and convicted for engaging in obscene unnatural acts. This repugnant concept is unspeakably vile. Reference obtained from the RSS feed of Resource Shelf's Docuticker, which daily updates a listing of new government and tank wonkage releases.

Comments

PURE POLITICAL GARBAGE

Submitted by flounder on April 1, 2006 - 12:51pm.

##################### Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy #####################

Mad Cow: A Case Study in Canadian-American Relations
Publication Date: March 2006
Publication Format: Digital Publications

Author(s):
Dr. Alexander Moens, Professor of Political Science, Simon Fraser University
Email: moens@sfu.ca
Telephone: (604) 291-4361

Executive Summary: The purpose of this paper is to examine the trade, regulatory, and political relationship between Canada and the United States through the lens of a single case study. On the basis of this case study, the author offers the following recommendations:

The fact that nearly.5 million cattle under 30 months were exported to the US in the second half of 2005 suggests that the Canadian-American trade in cattle and beef will likely return to its high levels before the BSE crisis struck. Therefore, subsidies introduced during the crisis to Canadian cow and calf producers, feedlots, and other incentives given to the meatpacking industry should be phased out quickly, as they may give rise to American trade action or complicate the USDA's re-opening of the border to older cattle. New federal or provincial subsidies to the industry for disposing of "specified risk materials" (i.e., organs such as the brain and spinal cord where the highest concentration of the BSE agent is found) should be avoided for the same reason.

Diversifying Canadian beef exports from North America to Asia is difficult and offers limited opportunities. Under NAFTA, Canada and Mexico both have free access to the American beef market (unlike the non-NAFTA countries which face quotas) and this market will again prove to be the most profitable one for Canada.

From 2003 to 2006, both Canada and the US added regulations on meatpacking and animal feed. Canada's regulations are stricter and produce more risk reduction for BSE than the US regulations. Given that contaminated feed and infected cows originating from Alberta still pose a small risk to free trade, it is important for Canada to keep this edge. Canada should follow this development with confidence-building measures such as joint USDA-Canadian Food Inspection Agency monitoring and inspection of Canadian facilities. Canada should ensure that the compliance rate of its feed mills consistently exceeds US rates.

Canada should also apply its efforts to developing a stronger NAFTA working relationship. Working closely with the USDA on practical harmonization steps is a key interest for Canada. Given the renewed closure of the Japanese market to US exporters after a December 2005 incident in which specified risk materials were found in a US shipment to Japan, the US is also keen to establish a stable regulatory regime.

ISBN/ISSN 1714-6739

FULL TEXT PDF 66 PAGES ;

http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/files/MadCow.pdf

The USDA designated Canada as the only country in the world in which BSE was present

and which could continue to export beef products to the United States. This was a

rule-based, pro-free trade action. Canada’s science-based and comprehensive approach

Fraser Institute Digital Publication

March 2006

Mad Cow: A Case Study in Canadian-American Relations 48

to controlling the disease from the early 1990s onward was a critical ingredient for the

USDA to reach this decision.

snip..............end

THUS, THE BSE MRR WAS BORN, the legal trading of all strains of TSE globally. JUST one country scratching the others back with more BSe. ALL one has to do is read the BSE GBR risk assessments;

EFSA Scientific Report on the Assessment of the Geographical BSE-Risk (GBR) of Mexico

Adopted July 2004 (Question N° EFSA-Q-2003-083)

[Last updated 08 September 2004]

http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/565/sr04_biohaz02_mexico_report_v2_en1.pdf

EFSA Scientific Report on the Assessment of the Geographical BSE-Risk (GBR) of the United States of America (USA)

Adopted July 2004 (Question N° EFSA-Q-2003-083)

[Last updated 08 September 2004]

http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/573/sr03_biohaz02_usa_report_v2_en1.pdf

EFSA Scientific Report on the Assessment of the Geographical BSE-Risk (GBR) of Canada

Adopted July 2004 (Question N° EFSA-Q-2003-083)

[Last updated 08 September 2004]

http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/tse_assessments/gbr_assessments/564/sr02_biohaz02_canada_report_v2_en1.pdf

TSS

#################### https://lists.aegee.org/bse-l.html ####################