06/0506 Canada acting on bluetongue regs

American Rancher June 5, 2006 A proposal from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency would allow more U.S. cattle to be exported to Canada. The agency is proposing to lift bluetongue restrictions for all classes of cattle, including breeding cattle, and other ruminants imported year round into Canada from any state in the U.S. The Canadian Cattlemen's Association welcomes the move. Its Director of government and international relations, John Masswohl says his country's bluetongue restrictions have been a trade irritant for about 20 years. Masswohl: "I can't tell you how much time we have spent talking with U.S. producers about this issue. It is just something that has reached a mythic, symbolic status among cattle producers that Canada is not the fair trader we claim to be. And whenever we go and ask U.S. producers to support normalization of trade for BSE they always point back and say, well why aren't you guys fixing bluetongue? So it is just something that if we can have that off the table, it is just going to remove a major source of opposition from U.S. cattle producers." Masswohl says there is no time frame for implementing the new policy but he hopes it will be in place by early July when Canadian cattlemen meet with their U.S. counterparts at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Summer Conference. I'm Bob Hoff.