If you just look at the trade statistics.... I don't study the country-of-origin labelling issue day in and day out, but clearly it has had a dampening effect on livestock coming from Canada to the United States. You have to remember that we represent packers and processors. Animals are our livelihood; we want the Canadian animals. It is a very difficult process. It's a costly process to segregate and put in additional SKUs to accommodate Canadian animals under the country-of-origin labelling. We try the best we can to maximize the utility of those animals. But in this particular case, you have a regulation that is not about food safety by any stretch of the imagination, in any form, regardless of what many people say. And you have a regulation that is an impediment to trade. I think that is not in the best interest, long term, of Canada or the United States.
On May 27th, 2009. See this statement in context.