Cattle producers shine light on Canadian border issues

Past president asks for level playing field

COLUMBIA BASIN — State cattle producers are shining the light on what they consider issues with the Canadian border.

Cattle Producers of Washington Past President Lee Engelhardt said his organization has been involved with the state Department of Agriculture's advisory group working on implementation of a national animal identification system. The group was created by Substitute House Bill 3033 in 2006.

The organization obtained records, Engelhardt said, of cattle entering Washington from Canada without health papers or correct identification coming in through the Oroville border crossing.

"Why would you want to have Canada have some health regulations different from ours?" Engelhardt asked. "Why would we want to have cattle coming into the state that are not meeting the same requirements we are requiring of our own producers in this state?"

The organization wanted to see the positive points and holes of the Canadian system, Engelhardt said.

"We'll just see how it plays out, I guess," he said. "We need to make people aware of what's going on. I think it's the wrong thing to do. If you want to keep producers on the land in our own country, keep everybody going, we can't be playing on an unlevel playing field."

Washington cattle producers want to raise the healthiest, safest product in the world as American producers, Engelhardt said.

"If Canada wants to trade with us, at least meet us with the same level of playing field," he said. "Get your stuff in order. If you've got your ducks in order, there's no problem, is there? We're not against trade by any means, but just make sure everybody's doing the right thing. When they come into our country they have to follow our speed limits, stop at our stop signs. They should have to live by the same health standards we do."

If the production organization keeps bringing the situation to light, the end result is the 3033 committee would be a more producer-friendly program instead of a mandatory program for animal identification, Engelhardt hopes. Legislation extends the program another year, he added.

"We'll try to keep working on those different issues, how to make it work for everybody, so we actually have a good system when it gets done," he said.