It seems a week doesn’t go by without a news announcement that some country has suspended meat imports from the USA or Canada. American poultry seems to be a favourite focus of late by busybody foreign regulators, but beef is the preferred target for most countries. Beef is under constant scrutiny for even the slightest real or imagined technical import violation or rumour of a disease outbreak, and it’s been that way for decades. It’s all exasperating, perhaps infuriating, because everyone involved be they exporters, importers or government regulators all know the export meat business’s biggest concern is trade mischief caused by busybody bureaucrats and pandering politicians.
The one matter that needs to be dismissed is that decisions to suddenly stop meat imports are based on food safety and science. Since the BSE crisis/fiasco, only the most naive would believe regulators are governed by lofty scientific principles and honesty. I cite the BSE case because it is clearly the most ludicrous of examples, and unbelievably, a number of countries continue to cling to absurd BSE notions (although for a price they are changeable) to this day to justify import restrictions on beef.
I should say no country is free of imposing trade regulations based on scientific whimsy. I recall when BSE broke out in Canada, the USA imposed immediate restrictions on imported Canadian beef, lamb, bison. The rationale was that American citizens could die if they ate contaminated Canadian meat. Apparently USA and Canadian government experts followed different scientific principles, as the Canadian scientists determined that it was perfectly safe for Canadians to eat Canadian beef. US Department of Agriculture experts determined that it was safe to eat Canadian beef in Canada, but something caused that same beef to become dangerous for Americans if it crossed the border. One noted the irony of President George Bush, in a visit to Canada and eating Canadian beef, stated after the dinner that he was still alive and well.
Perhaps the most frustrating beef import issue that has bedeviled the North American beef industry has been beef exports to the European Union (EU). The trade battles involved hormone-treated beef and was waged by the USA and Canada for about thirty years. In the end both countries won the battles, but lost the war when they both capitulated to the EU last year. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to discuss the matter with a high level EU agricultural trade commissioner. He stated that, yes, all scientific evidence proved that hormone-treated was safe, but no, North American hormone-treated beef would never be allowed into the EU and they would use every bogus health barrier to prevent its entrance. The reality is that the EU intends to protect Irish and French beef production period.
Both Canada and the USA were collecting punitive tariffs on some EU exports as a result of EU trade intransigence on beef. But the Obama administration gave up those tariffs in exchange for greater EU market access for non- hormone treated US beef exports. Canada has also given up on those tariffs in exchange for similar treatment in a EU-Canada Free Trade Agreement that is presently being negotiated. I would suggest that neither country will achieve any increase in profits from more EU market access to equal the hundreds of millions of dollars the punitive tariffs would have returned to the treasuries of both countries for a long time.
EU trade negotiators must be very brilliant or American and Canadian negotiators must be very dumb - the EU wins the beef trade war, saves hundreds of millions in tariffs and has only conceded some increased import quota on what is a theoretical increase in non-hormone beef imports.
Neither Canada nor the USA have fared a lot better with beef exports in other parts of the world, like Asia. Trade has reopened with the major importers, but it remains restricted. I suspect in most of those situations, trade restrictions have more to do with being able to tweak the American government’s nose or involves some other trade off for cars or steel.
One does suspect that foreign regulators have some self-interest in throwing up sudden trade barriers against poultry and beef. It seems whenever they engage in such mischief, a delegation of foreign bureaucrats is subsequently sent to the USA or Canada to inspect our meat processing facilities to see if they come up to their standards. Such taxpayer funded inspection junkets seem to involve much travel (never in the Canadian winter by the way) and lavish wining and dining by industry officials on this continent to curry favour with these expedient folks. Ah yes, beef is good in so many ways.