Presidents of a Canadian & U.S. Association of CEOs Praise BTB, Offer Roadmap for Further Progress in Canada-U.S. Economic Relations

As noted by Beyond the Border Observer, leaders of two top business associations praise Beyond the Border and suggest steps Canada and the United States can take to improve their economic relationship.

Check out the full The Hill editorial by John Engler and John Manley here. 

 For a quick summary, read below or check out Beyond the Border Observer:

They [Engler & Manley]...stress that “a lot more needs to be done to transform bottlenecks at the border into gateways for the legitimate flow of people and goods.”

On the top of their list? “[S]tronger regulatory cooperation where it makes sense.”

And they also urge both nations “to move beyond pilot projects, feasibility studies, and regulatory reviews to fuller implementation – transforming words and good intentions into more concrete and longer-term action.

Finally, Engler and Manley urge the countries to move forward on important cross-border infrastructure projects, Keystone XL and a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit, and also impose deadlines for parts made in one country and assembled in the other to “travel without interruption… .”

Beyond the Border Meat Pre-clearance Prong Hits a Snag

By Keith Edmund White, Editor-in-Chief

The after-effects of XL Foods E. coli-related beef recall are still being felt, with the Beyond the Border (BTB) pilot pre-clearance for meat shipments between Canada and the United States on ice while the U.S. reviews it's food-safety measures.

And the XL Foods beef recall, which lead to four Canadians getting sick, has given the advocacy group Food & Water Watch powerful ammunition in lobbying against the pilot program.  

The tension is clear:  while easing restrictions at the border saves $100 an hour per driver for Canadian meat shippers, concerns over eliminating U.S. safety inspections for Canadian meat post-XL Foods has frozen this aspect of BTB for the time being.

The XL Foods E. coli outbreak highlighted some very troubling aspects of the Canadian and American meat 'safety net', in both the meat-processing and contamination response consumer protection safeguard systems.  

Perhaps the pause in the pre-clearance program will allow business groups and advocacy groups--like the Food & Water Watch organization--can work together to ensure meat screening systems in both countries are equally robust, ensuring a safe and efficient flow of products throughout Canada and the United States. 

CBC reported yesterday on Food & Water Watch's recent lobbying effort, and resulting Canadian concern over deteriorating U.S. confidence in the Canadian food safety system:

An internal Foreign Affairs memo expressed concern that U.S. "confidence in the Canadian food safety system" could be undermined in the wake of last fall's XL Foods beef recall. 

... 

Josée De Menezes, the department's acting director of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Division, expressed that concern on Sept. 27 in a widely distributed departmental briefing note obtained under the Access to Information Act by CBC News Network's Power & Politics. 

Specifically, the note refers to a U.S. campaign to halt a meat pre-clearance pilot project that is part of the Canada-U.S. Beyond the Border initiative announced last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama. 

... 

Tony Corbo, a senior lobbyist for Food & Water Watch's food campaign, said the Sept. 18 letter to the U.S. agriculture secretary, which his group helped write, speaks for itself. 

"I'm not trying to indict Canadian meat as being less safe than U.S. meat," Corbo told CBC News. "But the fact of the matter is we have photographs indicating there was visible fecal contamination on meat products coming into the United States that were inspected at these border inspection stations. And we don't understand why there is an attempt to de-regulate a system that is actually working." 

... 

The Canadian Meat Council is one of several groups that have been pushing for the pilot project to cut delays at the border. 

"The pilot project itself only talks about getting the re-sampling, testing or inspections, getting it away from the border," said James Laws, the council's executive director. 

He said the rest of the shipments not slated for testing will be "pre-cleared" before reaching the border, allowing them get to market sooner. 

A council presentation on the project argues that "redirecting Canadian meat trucks to U.S. inspection centres also wastes time and fuel" and delays drivers from getting back on the road, at a cost of "roughly $100" per hour.