Border Closure Hurts U.S. Packers

OTTAWA - Jul 14/05 - SNS-- The U.S. based American Meat Institute told Ontario cattle feeders continued closure of the U.S. border to live cattle imports from Canada is costing the U.S packing industry jobs and could result in irreversible damage if Canada expands its industry and starts exporting meat to the United States and other international markets.

"A review of the numbers paints a grim picture. In the U.S., 7.800 jobs have been lost, several plants have closed, thousands of full-time packing plants jobs are now part-time and U.S. beef slaughter capacity has been drastically reduced," AMI Foundation President James H. Hodges told the Ontario Cattle Feeders Summer Feeders Forum.

"We've been talking about the 'fundamental restructuring' that has been occurring in the North American beef industry. At this point, perhaps we should just call it what it is: an irreversible dismantling of a world-class, integrated North American beef industry."

In his speech, Hodges also detailed for the audience AMI's view that the U.S. and Canada provide cattle and beef that are both equally healthy and safe. "R-CALF's efforts to make a distinction between the two in an effort to prevent Canadian imports are simply not rooted in scientific fact," Hodges said. He noted that recent publicity has prompted many newspaper editorial boards to call upon the United States to expand testing or to test all cattle -- an idea that Hodges called "scientifically insupportable and misleading to consumers.

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