Reuters News Service | By Gilbert Le Gras | June 25, 2003
OTTAWA - Canadian Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief warned export markets yesterday that unnecessary restrictions on Canadian beef arising from fears of mad cow disease could backfire on those countries in terms of general trade.
"I stressed very clearly to Japan that if they insist that people go beyond the OIE (Office International des Epizooties guidelines), as they have in their own domestic situation, countries (had) better be very, very careful because there's trade in other things than beef," he told reporters.
"And it will put other countries, including Canada, into the situation of having to consider doing those types of things in other areas," he told reporters from Sacramento, California.
More than 20 countries, including the United States and Japan, placed stiff import restrictions on Canadian beef after a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was reported on May 20.
The beef industry has said it is losing up to C$27.5 million ($20.2 million) a day since major export markets closed their borders.
Japan had cases of mad cow disease in 2001 and has since resorted to testing every animal slaughtered for the brain-wasting disease, something Vanclief called "above and beyond" requirements set by the OIE, the Paris-based international regulatory agency.
"There has to be a justification ... lets base our decisions on science," Vanclief added.
Vanclief met with officials from South Korea, Uruguay and Japan at the conference in Sacramento and said he had "vigorous" discussions with Japanese officials about Japan's testing requirements.
"They have taken some action that is quite frankly above and beyond what is required by the OIE," Vanclief said.
"If this was the approach trading partners were thinking of taking, or started to take ... we needed to be very careful of that because other might start to copy that approach."
Earlier yesterday, Canada's ambassador to the World Trade Organization complained to reporters in Geneva that some countries had banned goods such milk, semen, embryos and hides, which have no BSE-related restrictions.
The United States, Canada's biggest beef-export market, is looking at ways to begin lifting its ban on Canadian beef but has not set a timeline for doing so, Vanclief said.
"We do have reason to believe they are seriously looking at ways in which they can do that (open the border)," he told reporters by phone. "They have not set a timeline."
Vanclief said he believes the science indicates now that the border should reopen. (Additional reporting by Randall Palmer)
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Story Date: 25/6/2003
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