Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 11/13/13

The United States and Canada will launch later in November a pilot program to transition into cross-border trade of wholesale meat and poultry using universal names for product cuts, according to officials working on the project.

The pilot program is the next step in a years-long effort under the U.S.-Canadian Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) to harmonize the nomenclature of wholesale meat cuts traded between the two countries.
The effort, meanwhile, sends a signal of cooperation as the two trading partners clash over Washington’s country-of-origin labeling rules.

“The real advantage of harmonizing the nomenclature is it would allow producers in both the U.S. and Canada to ship their products without having to label the cuts for the other country,” Phil Kimball, executive director of the North American Meat Association (NAMA), told Meatingplace. “This would reduce the added cost, and reflects the fact that we’re really in a North American meat market, not the meat market of two separate countries.”

Under the pilot program, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will accept the respective names for 21 heavily traded wholesale cuts in a step toward full harmonization. The nomenclature changes apply only to wholesale trade.

Specs
In the first half of 2014, the harmonized nomenclature officially will be incorporated into the Institutional Meat Purchasing Specifications (IMPS), a series of meat product specifications used as a reference for the meat industry and foodservice and institutional buyers. The IMPS are maintained by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.

CFIA is then expected to use the IMPS nomenclature for its own wholesale specifications, and going forward it will share with the U.S. dual responsibility for the maintenance of the IMPS. CFIA also will have a reference document that will list the names in English and French, as required in Canada. That document will not contain information particular to the U.S., like grade designation or portion cut weights and thickness.

In addition, The NAMP Meat Buyers Guide, published by NAMA, will be updated in hard-copy and online forms to include the harmonized names and photos of cuts to make it a more universal reference for the Canadian and U.S. meat industry. The Meat Buyer’s Guide is a pictorial representation of the IMPS.

“From our part, this is part of a five-year effort made first by [the North American Meat Processors Association] and then NAMA to have it fully applicable to Canadian trade as well as the U.S. trade, in recognition of the fact we’re in a North American market,” Kimball said.

Bigger picture
In a speech last week at the Process Expo in Chicago, Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz called this project a model for the future in terms of cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments.

That cooperation has been put to the test as Canada continues to fight U.S. country-of-origin rules. WTO complaints from Canada and from Mexico forced Washington to rewrite the rules, but opponents contend the revisions only made COOL more cumbersome and costly for producers.

In the latest salvo, Canada threatened retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, including beef and pork, should COOL be implemented as outlined in the revised rules.

The nomenclature effort with Canada is one of six ongoing initiatives for agriculture and food that fall under FSIS, AMS and CFIA as part of the RCC. The RCC was established by President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in February 2011.

Still in the early stages is a similar initiative with Mexico.

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