03/07/05 Canada pondering legal action

American Rancher March 7, 2005 While those U.S. cattlemen who oppose reopening the border to Canadian live cattle cheered last week's developments in court and the U.S. Senate, Canadian cattle producers and officials expressed their disappointment. Stan Eby, President of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, called the issuance of a preliminary injunction against reopening the border a temporary setback. Eby: "Our legal people are still reviewing the time frames around this. How it can move ahead. How it will move ahead. I know there is a lot of strategizing going on between our legal firm, government of Canada, American Meat Institute. The groups that were pushing to get the border open." Canada's Trade Minister has said they are looking at every alternative including the legal route. The President of the Canada Beef Export Federation Ted Haney, said Ottawa should consider challenging the U.S. under World Trade Organization rules or under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Haney said trade actions had been considered too lengthy a process but he says now is the time to ask whether a different approach to reopening the borderis needed. Meanwhile, in his written opinion last week granting the preliminary injunction against USDA's BSE minimal risk rule, federal Judge Richard Cebull said that evidence strongly suggests that if testing so far has been representative of the Canadian herd, a BSE prevalence greater than 5.5 cases per million head of cattle would put Canada on par with a number of European countries with a BSE problem. I'm Bob Hoff.