NCBA Executive Committee Opposes Litigation that Threatens Opening of International Markets

Efforts to build a global market for U.S. beef based on science would be harmed by frivolous litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture to close the U.S. border to Canadian beef and cattle, according to the officers and executive committee of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).   R-Calf/United Stockgrowers of America has threatened to sue the USDA to keep the border closed until Canada is recognized internationally as “BSE-Free.”

Passed in an NCBA Executive Committee teleconference last Friday was the following statement: “The NCBA Executive Committee, comprised of cattlemen from across the country, opposes this type of lawsuit that restricts the opportunity to reopen international markets that benefit U.S. cattle producers.”

According to NCBA President Jan Lyons, a cattle and beef producer from Manhattan, Kan., efforts to recapture the $13-15 per hundredweight lost to beef exports following the Dec. 23 incident in Washington state would suffer as a result of R-Calf’s action. 

“We really can’t expect our export partners to base their decisions on science if we’re not willing to do the same thing with those who export products to us,” Lyons says.  “When it comes to Canada, we expect that border to be opened in such a way that it would not harm our domestic market, that Canadian heifers be permanently identified and not allowed to enter the U.S. breeding herd through feedlots, and that Canada abide by equivalency principles on cattle and beef so that we have unrestricted movement of cattle and beef to Canada. 

“At the same time, we want to assure that Japan and other importing countries abide by internationally accepted science in their trade with the United States.  We firmly believe the science provides assurances to all beef consumers, both here and abroad, that U.S. beef is safe.  We simply cannot address international trade one country at a time.”

Lyons says the best way to recapture losses due to trade sanctions against the U.S. is to show the world how to conduct trade based on science, not to work overtime to create new trade sanctions against countries.

“This lawsuit threat is consistent with other R-Calf isolationist actions that would ultimately prove detrimental to cattlemen,” according to Lyons.  “It appears to be a membership-generating effort that ignores the value of U.S. beef exports to cattlemen.  It also ignores science that shows the border can be reopened safely, and done without harm to U.S. cattlemen if done properly.   

“If we applied the R-Calf criteria of ‘prohibiting imports of live cattle or beef from countries with BSE in their herds,’ then other countries, like Japan, would apply the same standard to us – regardless of the animal’s origin,” Lyons says.