Canada hints at possible universal mad cow testing

Canada might move toward universal testing of its cattle for mad cow disease as a way of improving foreign beef sales stunted by an outbreak of the animal disease, Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna said on Wednesday.

The United States has banned imports of live Canadian cattle and some Canadian beef since May 2003, when Canada discovered its first domestic case of mad cow disease. Since then, two more animals have been diagnosed, as well as a cow in Washington state that was raised in Canada.

Referring to the trade disruption with the United States, McKenna said, “If this blockage continues on the border, we are increasingly going to develop our own (beef) processing industry in Canada and we’re going to end up increasingly investing in the science that will lead to universal testing, or perhaps something short of universal testing.”

McKenna’s remarks, made during an interview on the C-SPAN television network, went further than those of some Canadian policy-makers and were at odds with the Bush administration, which strongly rejects universal testing as unnecessary and costly.

Since the discovery of mad cow disease in Canada and the United States, the two countries have been working toward standardizing mad cow safeguards.

With about 14.7 million head of cattle in Canada, compared with about 96 million head in the United States, universal testing for mad cow disease would be a far more costly project south of the border.

The Bush administration is trying to normalize beef and cattle trade with Canada, but has been stymied by legal challenges by a U.S. industry group and some members of Congress.

McKenna’s remarks came as the United States was making some progress toward reopening Japan’s large beef import market to U.S. products.

Tokyo suspended imports of U.S. beef in December 2003, after the Washington state case of mad cow disease. That prompted Japan to demand that the United States test all its slaughtered cattle if it ever wanted to recapture its $1.4 billion beef export market.

Since then, Tokyo and Washington have come up with an alternate plan that does not require universal testing, although Japan’s imports of beef are still at least a few months off.

McKenna, new to the job in Washington, created a stir this month when he suggested that Canada had decided to stay out of a planned U.S. missile defense system because of disputes with the United States over cattle and lumber trade. The suggestion was at odds with official Canada policy not linking trade and political disputes. 

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