Live Cattle Trade Hurts Canada

CALGARY - Jan 5/05 - SNS -- Some Canadian cattle producers believe the re-opening of live cattle trade to the United States will allow the industry in that country to resume a complacent attitude toward development of the beef industry -- exporting jobs and additional income to the United States.

The western Canadian Beef Initiative Group (BIG) says the March 7 opening of the U.S. border to live cattle imports from Canada "does not solve long-term problems faced by Canadian beef producers."

It argues, "The root of the crisis is not the closure of the U.S. border but over-reliance on the U.S. market for sales and slaughter of Canadian beef. Industry groups have not accepted this fact and have therefore provided bad advice to government. The result is 2.2 billion tax-payer dollars in beef industry aid which has accomplished little."

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