Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 11/4/13

“For Canada, trade is not an option, it’s a lifeline,” Canadian Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food, Gerry Ritz, told a standing-room only crowd at the North American Meat Association Forum at ProcessExpo.

Decrying the “thickening” of the border that would be an outcome of country-of-origin labeling, Ritz said that U.S. packers were on track to lose 9,000 jobs as a result of the program, and that seven plants had been identified as being at risk of closing as COOL’s costs started to work their way through the system.
Ritz expanded on his comments in an exclusive interview with Meatingplace after his address:

Meatingplace: You mentioned in your address that Canada has a list of retaliatory items the country would act on if COOL were to go into effect. Can you name the items at the top of that list?
RITZ: Sure beef and pork, which is unfortunate because they’re our allies, but of course that’s a natural. California wines, office furniture, mattresses, some sugar products; it’s probably politically motivated but there are people who need to know the hurt this is causing on both sides of the border. I talk with representatives at the state level about jobs going missing … as a direct result of COOL.

We’re starting to see a thickening of the border, and Tyson’s announcement (that is would stop taking Canadian cattle for processing) underscores what I’m talking about. Seventy percent of our meat products come south for processing, and what that’s going to do is drive us to open more processing on the Canadian side which will have a longer-term negative effect on meat in the U.S.

I’ve asked for some of the focus groups studies that have been done that show why this is necessary. I haven’t seen any. As I said in my speech, this is a political response to a situation that doesn’t exist.

Meatingplace: You said Canada is pushing for a legislative fix to this. Stateside these things can take a long time.
RITZ: We are buoyed by the fact that the President has made this one of his three priorities. We understand the political climate in the U.S., but it’s going to take a legislative fix. Nobody wants a regulatory (solution) and you wait for the other shoe to drop years down the road.

We had a fix at the end of the Bush Administration, which was a NAFTA label, which was acceptable at that time, but that was tossed overboard with the new administration. But Canada cannot, will not, accept things that restrict our livestock industry like this.

Meatingplace: Do you think a farm bill legislative fix can be put into place before COOL is scheduled to go into effect?
RITZ: I think anything’s possible. It takes political will to do it, absolutely. I think the pressure we’re bringing to bear at the political level as well as the practical level in all of our industries, from the Mexican and Canadian side, will push them to do the right thing.

Meatingplace: Do you see opportunities for more processing on the Canadian side of the border in any case?
RITZ: Yes, we’re going to see that anyway. Some of the market opportunities we’ve identified in Europe and in China and Japan, and in the hormone-free segment, are showing us that we have a growing segment of our livestock that are going to feed these premium markets. So we’re looking at increasing our capacity simply because of these other markets that are available to us.

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