Opening Border Heightens Disease Risk To U.S
US - USDA’s mandate is to prevent BSE from entering the United States, but the first thing the agency said (when announcing) this rule is designed to normalize cattle trade with Canada.
9 October 2007
2 minute read
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently concluded that Canadian cattle are 26 times more likely to test positive for BSE than U.S. cattle.
USDA went on to say that it’s an integral part of the agency’s efforts to promote fair trade practices and that the agency will encourage other countries to align their trade requirement to meet USDA expectations. Apparently, USDA thinks opening the border to older Canadian cattle will improve our export markets, so the agency, basically, continues to blatantly disregard the product demands of our export customers.
When is someone going to point out to this runaway agency that it is not USDA’s job to improve trade relations because there already are federal agencies for that n the USTR and the Commerce Department. USDA is supposed to look out for the welfare of the U.S. livestock industry, so how in the world did USDA get the authority to decide it’s in the United States’ best interest to continue pushing for the “no borders” approach to create a North American cattle herd, which continues to jeopardize the health of the U.S. cattle herd?
USDA refused to answer what percentage of public comments the agency received on this rule were proponents of Rule 2 and what percentage of the comments came from people opposed to opening the border to OTM Canadian cattle. It doesn’t matter what the comments said because USDA already had its mind made up. I think they’ll do exactly as they please.
