April 7, 2006

US group loses bid to ban Canadian live cattle

An American ranchers' group has lost a second bid to ban Canadian cattle and beef, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association said in a news release

A US district court in the state of Montana rejected the request by R-CALF, a beef trading group.

The trade group had appealed to reverse a USDA rule that reopened the border to live cattle less than 30 months old and boxed cuts of Canadian beef.

The district court had issued a temporary injunction in March last year that delayed the reopening of the US border to live cattle for four months over concerns there were insufficient safeguards from mad-cow disease.

An appeals court overturned the injunction last July and trade in live cattle resumed.

Hugh Lynch-Staunton, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said it was good news for cattle producers. He also added that the next step would be for the United States to allow trade in older cattle and breeding cattle.

Since the US-Canadian border reopened in July, trade in cattle has reached 80 percent of what it was before the discovery of mad-cow disease in 2003.