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Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a press conference
with newly appointed Canadian Agriculture Minister Chuck
Strahl that his plans to fast-track a new rule to allow
the import of Canadian cattle older than 30 months have
been stymied by the discovery of two new cases of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy in Canada this year.
Johanns had hoped that a new rule would be available by
early summer, with imports resuming as early as September,
but rule-writing is taking longer than expected as USDA
attempts to draft a rule immune to legal challenge. Ranchers-Cattlemen's
Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, has promised
to challenge any eventual rule in court, contending that
older cattle are more likely to be infected with BSE, making
the disease's transfer to U.S. cattle more likely.
Johanns said he could not set a date for resumption of trade,
and implied that it would be 2007 before the border will
reopen.
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