The Canadian Cattle-men’s Association (CCA) is pleased that “Rule 2”, which will allow for greater access for Canadian beef and cattle to the United States was moved from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 29, 2006 and will be published in the Federal Register for a public comment period that will begin on January 9, 2007 and end on March 12, 2007.

The proposed rule will allow for the export of any live animals – breeding or for slaughter – born on or after March 1, 1999 to the United States and beef products of any age. The not-pregnant requirement will be eliminated along with the movement restrictions on feeder cattle so it will be considerably easier and less costly to export feeder and slaughter cattle.

“We are pleased with this move,” stated CCA President Hugh Lynch-Staunton. “It’s the next step towards greater normalization of trade and we have been waiting for this for quite some time. We will continue to work to ensure cattle of all ages are able to be exported to the United States for processing and we will carefully review the proposed rule and submit comments on behalf of the Canadian industry.”

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) submitted Rule 2 to the OMB for review on November 24, 2006. After the public comment period of 60 days, the USDA will review the comments, write responses to them and potentially amend the rule. At that point the rule must be returned to the OMB with the USDA’s report on the results of the public consultation. After the OMB approves the final rule, the USDA will publish it and specify a date when it will come into effect. Since the rule has been designated by the OMB as “major”, there is a 60 day waiting period during which time Congress may review the final rule and potentially pass a resolution to disallow it.

“While we are hopeful that the rule will proceed without further complications – legal or political – we are prepared to engage any unwarranted challenge of this nature. If there are no complications, the rule could be implemented by summer 2007,” says Lynch-Staunton. “We agree with the USDA that there is no risk in expanding the list of products. This is consistent with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) international standards and the USDA’s proposal is consistent with what the United States is expecting from the rest of the world.

“With the safeguards we have in place, the continued closure of markets to Canadian beef and cattle is unjustified for animal or human health reasons.”

The Canadian beef industry remains committed to meeting the domestic and international animal health and food safety requirements. It has a number of multi-layered safeguards in place to ensure food and animal safety such as a feed ban which will be further enhanced this year to eradicate the risk of BSE in the Canadian herd.