Monday, June 13, 2005

Some people get it

From the Western Governors Association meeting:
Gov. Bill Owens said Monday it is "hypocrisy" for the United States to pressure Japan to lift a ban on U.S. beef over mad cow concerns while banning Canadian beef for the same reason.

"It's this sort of hypocrisy that makes it very difficult for the U.S. to win any sort of trade war."

Meanwhile, no hypocrisy on our side:
Canada's ambassador to Washington, Frank McKenna, said Monday Ottawa will not close its border to imports of U.S. beef.

Just to be clear, in the long run the closed border may be turning into a net plus for Canada due to increased processing capability, and that's part of the reason for the U.S. backlash against a continued ban. But the best of all worlds is in sight: the processing plants are already going up. If the borders open as well, then all levels of cattle production should be in better shape than before the crisis.

Now if Calvert's voice calling for reduced ag subsidies gets heard, we'll really be in business.

No comments:

Post a Comment