Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Canada, U.S. agree on animal-disease measures to protect trade

01/16/2013
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Canada and the United States have agreed to maintain livestock and meat trade during animal disease outbreaks using a new system that targets trade bans more precisely by region, Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Wednesday.
In 2003, the United States and many other countries halted beef imports from Canada after the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, on a Western Canada farm. The trade bans caused prices for Canadian cattle to collapse, resulting in severe financial losses for ranchers.
Under the new system, which won't take effect until after consultation with industry groups and details are worked out, each country would only restrict trade within designated disease-control zones where the animal disease breaks out. If it had been in place in 2003, the U.S. would likely only have restricted imports of beef from Western Canada, not the entire country, Ritz said at a press conference in Winnipeg.
"The new agreement will help prevent or limit the introduction of highly contagious foreign animal diseases from one country to the other," he said. "At the same time, this agreement will help avoid unnecessary trade disruptions.

Continued:  http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Canada-US-agree-on-animal-disease-measures-to-protect-trade-187136241.html

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