Andy Mitchell, Canada’s Agriculture Minister has returned empty handed form a New York meeting with Ann Veneman, his US counterpart, the purpose of which was to raise the case for reopening of the Canadian–US border to live cattle exports.
The USA and several other countries have closed their borders to Canadian beef exports after a single case of BSE was discovered in May 2003 on a farm in northern Alberta.
Despite Mr Mitchell’s science-based arguments no specific end dates to the American review process were offered by Mrs Veneman, who did, however, speak of the need to speed up the US regulatory process.
