07/19/05 Border reopened?

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals announced it would overturn the preliminary injunction of a lower court that banned Canadian live cattle and some beef products from coming into the U.S. late Thursday. By Friday morning, U.S.D.A. Secretary Mike Johanns announced plans to reopen the border. JOHANNS: We will be moving as expeditiously as possible to begin importing Canadian cattle but of course we would do so carefully to assure that the minimal risk rule criteria are clearly met. So what does that all mean? First from a timeline perspective, while Johanns did not give an exact date, he felt the border reopening could happen as early as this week. And from the perspective of U.S.D.A.'s minimal risk rule, the groundwork between our nation and Canada to reopen the board was being laid even as the ban was in place. That includes a Standard Operating Procedure to be followed by U.S. and Canadian agriculture health safety and border officials, and updated lists of approved products to come from Canada. Once that is in place, Canada would issue verification certificates for products, with such documentation and product double checked by U.S. border and A.P.H.I.S. inspectors before such product is allowed in. However, the border reopening could once again be halted. R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A., which asked for the preliminary injunction, will now focus its efforts July 27th in a federal court in Montana to make the ban on Canadian live cattle and listed beef permanent. So R-C.A.L.F. C.E.O. Bill Bullard, why pursue the case despite the Ninth Circuit ruling? BULLARD: It is our position and remains so that the U.S.D.A. does not have any justification for relaxing the fifteen year policy that is prevented the introduction of b.s.e. into the United States from known sources of b.s.e. and in this case, that is Canada. So what happens if the lower court rules in favor of R-C.A.L.F. once again? Johanns says U.S.D.A. will immediately go back to the Ninth Circuit to appeal and get the border reopened. Now Judge Richard Cebull has two avenues to consider as precedent as he hears this case. There is his previous ruling that granted the preliminary injunction based on concerns about safety, and now the Ninth Circuit's ruling, which according to Jon Masswhol of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, was based in part on U.S.D.A.'s ability to have deference to set policy. MASSWHOL: I think another of the arguments R-C.A.L.F. was making about how U.S.D.A. didn't follow the proper rulemaking because they didn't quantify what the proper amount of risk was, and I think Judge Tashima seemed to indicate that he didn't believe that U.S.D.A. was required to specify.