1. Stop making this issue a trade war, senators are saying people voted because of teh soft wood lumbr dispute, and it's possible that they voted against the reopening of the border because of missile defense. The US needs a trade war as much as we do, you lost packing jobs because of this. I can't understand why you keep the border closed, our cows are safe, the fact we are FINDING the mad cows means that we are doing our job in spotting out bad cases. And for that matter, what is the US doing to combat it besides isolating itself? I haven't heard of any new groups to look for cases, no looking at all, and we all know you guys had a case too.

in fact, experts say that it's just risky to eat your beef as ours.

http://www.canada.com/national/story.ht ... 7b456583be

2. You seem to not know what you are doing to farmers here, being in a farming town you tend to know people, and they are not having fun with this. Because of the US and other nations closing it's borders, thousands of cows had to be slaughtered not because of BSE, but because of lack of money to care for the cows. They did get compensation, but compared to what they could have gotten, it's chump change.

3. For once, I like republicans right now, the democratic (and liberal) senators that have disfavoured the reopen to young canadian cattle (BTW they are very unlikely to have BSE as compared to older cows ecause meat feed was banned before tehy were born) are making this into a trade war, you keep pushing canada away from trade and away from so many business, that it will hurt the US too, canada and the US have always been closely tied, and for us, it's like sleeping with a bear, we can't control the grunts your economy makes, and we have to adapt to that. But our people cannot have this loss of cattle, it's been two/three years and 3 maybe 4 cases? And no cattle has gotten into the food. you could this too, why not train jobs to look for BSE and have them do regular rounds to check for it on farmers? theres a business for someone to start to make money.

The problem is the administration doesn't seem to care about such things. The lumber tariffs are a case in point - from what I understand, the hurt the massive US housing industry for the benefit of the miniscule US lumber industry. So they were bad for the US, but for whatever reason, the GOP decided the lumber was important and the economy as a whole wasn't.

Having these sorts of weird priorities gives them some flexibility in dealing with problems. Canada wants the border opened, and Bush wants them to adopt missile defense - but he can use the border to put pressure on Martin, and Martin can't use SDI to put pressure on him. It's not fair or beneficial, but that's the way he works.


You know, back when no cattle were found, people said it was a good sign because it mean there was no BSE. Now that some are found, people say that's a good sign, since it means the tests are working. That always sounded odd to me, although the fact that Canada's reported problems and the US hasn't isn't really to the US' credit.

Actually, Testify; you do need a trade war. Only force will work with terrorists; it's all they understand.

My, how Republican sounding. Seriously; the GOP (who run Congress and so are making all of these decisions) are a bunch of thieves and cowards. So long as they can rip you off, they will do so; but if you launch a trade war aimed at the US, and specifically target Republican friendly voters and industries, they'll fold. The EU has already done it to us twice; and it worked like a charm each time.

Like the lumber dispute hurt canada a lot too, we lost billions because of that.

But it's also just as easy to say that canada's own social assholery brought us to this, though the US's actions are not right, they are still semi justifiable by the fact a lot of canadians have been acting like self rightous assholes and acting like we are better then teh US.

Those naughty Canadians; acting just like Americans. What are they thinking?

exactly

thats what annoys me, we act better then the US when we aren't that different, and it's glob us up now too. Stupid egos and stupid bono fueling our superiority complex, CURSE YOU BONO!

Isn't the only definitive test for BSE autopsy of the brain? Regular on-farm testing may be difficult.

weird thing is that BSE only transfer through the eating of the brain, unless I'm wrong, so in that case it's hard for it to transfer to humans.

Naw I think I'm wrong.

the prions prefer CNS tissue (although you occasionally hear rumblings of prions turning up in other organs), but you can pick that up in scrapple or hot dogs, as well as poorly segregated meat for hamburgers. Steak's probably OK... Also, as far as I know, chickens and pigs don't get prion disease, so for the moment those meats are relatively safe (looks like the Orthodox may have to make some new dietary rules, eh, Were?)

OK, I'm confused. Canada banned some chemical additive a while ago; on the basis that it was hazardous to health. A US company sued for lost earnings under NAFTA; and the Canadian government lifted the ban and paid millions in compensation.

Can't the Canadian beef industry merely do the same thing back to the US this time?

First thing, as a canadian I've never even heard of this.

And explain hows it applies to the issue?

Canada imposed a ban for health reasons and was forced to lift it and pay sompensation under NAfTA rules. Now the US has imposed a ban for health reasons; I don't understand why they aren't forced to rescind it and pay compensation under the same NAFTA rules. That's how it applies.

I'll search for a cite on it.

Edit: No cite yet, but the suit was brought by the Ethyl Corporation; following the banning of a gasoline additive believed to be toxic, under Chapter 11 of the NAFTA agreement. The government settled out of court.

Edit2: It was in 1997, the additive was MMT and the settlement was 13 million dollars. I may have been wrong about the ban being rescinded, however.

Now you're assuming that the same rules apply to the US as the rest of the world.

The US can easily ignore the decisions of, say, the World Court (they still owe Panama millions in reparations), but ignoring a NAFTA ruling is an entirely different matter, especially when they're trying to get the rest of the hemisphere (apart from Cuba) to sign the FTAA.

The US has been ordered several times by NAFTA to drop the softwood lumber duties, but they haven't been lifted. The US (or, at least, the Bush Administration) has no problem ignoring any rulings they don't like.