05/24/07 Canada's Okay & immigration Fight Continues

Canada's Okay & Immigration Fight Continues plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The World Organization for Animal Health has dubbed Canada as a controlled risk country for BSE one day after granting the U.S. the same status. The Controlled Risk title means that beef exports should be considered safe. Canada's Director of Government and International relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association John Masswohl says this is good news. MASSWOHL: We should be able now to go to all the countries around the world and say the OIE has validated us with this status and now we really begin in earnest to get rid of those 30 month limitations and the limitations on bone-in product. Well as predicted, the Immigration Reform proposal has been assaulted on just about every front and while receiving bi-partisan support at the on-set, it is clear there are still issues split down party lines. Late yesterday the Senate voted to slash the number of foreign workers who could come to the U.S. on temporary visas. A new guest worker program would be capped at 200,000 a year under the proposal, which passed 74-24 over strong opposition by the Bush administration. Some see that as detrimental since it cuts in half the number of workers allowed currently under the White House-backed measure. Other issues being debated on are whether mandatory prison sentences are allowed for illegal border crossings and whether to allow the revoking of visas without a court review. As Yogi Berra is often quoted&"It's never over until it's over." Now here's Susan Allen with today's Food Forethought. (Script) Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.