Agriculture and rural leaders of state and provincial legislative bodies, including three Saskatchewan MLAs, came together last month to pass a resolution encouraging the United States congress to build trade in Canadian cattle and hog exports rather than implement a new regulation that could become very costly to each country’s producers.

Greg Brkich, MLA for Arm River–Watrous, said the U.S. government’s new rule that disallows meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to be processed on the same packing line as meat from other countries is going to end up costing the cattle industry in both countries more money. He said in response to this new regulation SARL (State Agriculture and Rural Leaders) passed this resolution at their annual Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit held June 7 to 9 in Vancouver.

“We feel that North America should be just a straight trading block,” said Brkich. “The border should be an imaginary line because we produce the same kind of meat. We have the same safety regulations (and) environmental rules are the same. It’s just a little bit of protectionism. Some of their federal politicians down in the United States try to protect an industry that doesn’t need protecting. What it is is our producers are going to be getting less money.”

The United States government presented the new rule as a way to try and resolve years of trade disputes with Canada and Mexico over mandatory country of origin labelling rules (mCOOL). Canada and Mexico brought the United States before the World Trade Organization (WTO) over mCOOL, which ruled in Canada and Mexico’s favour last year.

In the resolution passed by SARL, it is stated that mCOOL was found by the WTO to discriminate against imported livestock, which creates challenges for Canadian cattle and hog producers, jeopardizes the viability of U.S. packing and feeding infrastructure placing local and state economies at risk and undermines North American competitiveness in the global market.

Canada’s Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz and Minister of International Trade Ed Fast responded to the U.S. decision to impose the new rule by stating their intention to apply retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports to Canada.

To read more please see the July 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.