Canada and the United States have agreed they will accept
each other’s zoning systems to prevent the spread of any outbreak of a foreign
animal disease.
For Canada, it would break the country in halves at West
Hawk in Northwestern Ontario.
It’s not clear where the U.S. intends to establish zones,
how many there will be and where the borders will be established.
In fact, in announcing the agreement, the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency says on its website that “a detailed guidance
framework, outlining exactly how the arrangement will work, is (still) under
development.
“The framework will lay out agreed-upon processes
and conditions for zoning recognition, and will involve extensive consultation
with industry groups, states and provinces.”
In other words, there's really only an agreement to keep negotiating.
The CFIA says that under the agreement, each
country intends to some day recognize the zoning controls in the other nation.
It means that if there is, for example, an
outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Ontario, cattle, beef, hog and pork
exports could continue to the U.S. from Western Canada – provided Canada is
certain that it can contain the outbreak to Eastern Canada.
The only time zoning has worked for Canada was
during avian influenza outbreak in British Columbia.
The CFIA was able to
convince export-destination countries that the outbreak was contained within
the Lower Fraser Valley.
Canada’s livestock industry has been working on West
Hawk zoning strategy for about a decade but has yet to convince any export-destination
country to accept Canadian zoning.
It seems the farmers might be able to negotiate an agreement a whole lot faster than the CFIA.
