Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the invitation to provide input into the committee's study. The Canadian beef production sector is comprised of 60,000 beef farms, ranches and feedlots and is a major economic driver with a significant multiplier effect in the Can

International Trade committee  British Columbia unfortunately doesn't have a federally inspected beef packing plant, so for any cattle harvested in British Columbia, that beef can only be sold in the province. That's a great disadvantage for cattle producers in British Columbia, one they wouldn't have if they

International Trade committee  Sometimes there's a requirement to unload cattle at the border and have them inspected—for example, to make sure they have the CAN brand on them—and the facilities at the border to do that are fairly limited. You have a very small number of border crossings that you go over. Rath

International Trade committee  There does end up being a price difference because of that, yes, for sure.

International Trade committee  It's also been suggested that this is almost a substitute for country of origin labelling. The same people who advocate for country of origin labelling also advocate for preventing—

International Trade committee  We think there is still some advantage to having a Canadian grade for what we market in Canada, so I don't know that we're prepared to take that step just yet, but maybe we could harmonize the standards a bit more. There has been some effort towards that goal over the years and s

International Trade committee  It's costly to prove it. It's like proving that you breathed air today: show me the documentation that you did. We have to brand all of the live cattle that are going for other than immediate slaughter. They have to have the CAN brand or a tattoo in the ear. That's a sort of lef

International Trade committee  When they export beef to Canada, they can use their grade.

International Trade committee  When we export our beef to the United States, we can use our grading system, but our system doesn't mean anything to American consumers or American retailers, and they're not interested in seeing our grade. Therefore, it essentially goes ungraded.

International Trade committee  Yes. A U.S. grade can only be applied by a U.S. grader who is an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Canadian packing companies would be glad to pay to have U.S. graders here in Canada, very much as there is U.S. Customs pre-clearance at Canadian airports. They'd

International Trade committee  Yes. On these issues that we've outlined we've talked extensively with our U.S. counterparts, and we're all on the same page with these.

International Trade committee  I think that one we mentioned, this reinspection at the border, is certainly a very significant one. We also mentioned the inability to use the U.S. grades on beef that we export to the United States. It's very similar to what Levi mentioned about grains coming into Canada. Amer

International Trade committee  In that process, after clearing customs the truck moves to something called an “I house”, an inspection house. The inspection house is usually not right at the border. It's usually not far from the border, but nearby. These are privately owned, but they have USDA inspectors at th

International Trade committee  As an example, we went through that very lengthy dispute settlement panel on the country of origin labelling. We started it in 2008 and we finally got the authorization to retaliate in 2015. We knew that law was coming, and as we started looking at how to address it, working co