Country Life in BC | November 2003
Canada's cows should be MAD! It took a while to dispel the "spin", but by mid-October, Canada's ranchers finally had the straight goods: "Yes, NAFTA applies. No, we are not going to use it. Why? Because we prefer a "soft approach".
Euphemisms aside, Canada is AFRAID to use NAFTA to reopen the US border to Canadian beef.
It has nothing to do with a 7 year OIE ban (applies only between non-NAFTA countries). It has nothing to do with time (NAFTA has a 215 day fast track). It has nothing to do with the costs of legal action (NAFTA is a panel ruling, not a lawyers' slug-fest). It has nothing to do with Japan.
It has everything to do with Ottawa's unwillingness to "anger" the Americans. Bureaucrats picking sectoral winners and losers. Washington's agenda in place and driving the process. Senior industry leaders danced and manipulated by American lawyers and Ottawa spin into accepting Washington's unilateral proposal for "legislation" (90 days), gazetting (30 days minimum) and feedback (another 30 days minimum). With no guarantees.
Canada's solid NAFTA rights should have been invoked from the outset: Chapter 20 to open the border (see October Column SLAM DUNK) and Chapter 11 to secure compensation for ranchers and feedlot operators (Pope Tribunal ruling: Access to markets is a property interest subject to protection under Article 1110).
Canadian expressions of gratitude for Washington's "phased opening" of the border to Canadian beef is much like the RCMP thanking thieves for voluntarily limiting break and enters to Mondays and Tuesday nights.
Meanwhile, Canada's highly concentrated, US dominated packing sector is poised to feast on the remains of our once independent cow calf and feedlot sector.
2004 is an election year for Bush. American ranchers are getting a record US$1.12 a pound for fat cattle. Euphemisms aside, Ottawa is running scared.Country Life in BC:
