The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association is basically telling the European Union to “go fly a kite” in response to nit-picking trade barriers.
Canada and the European Union negotiated and signed a trade agreement that is intended to allow Canadian beef into the European market, but officials there have blocked trade by requiring technical compliance, such as refusing entry to beef that has been carcass washed for food safety.
“Just because another country does something in a specific way doesn’t mean we have to adopt that,” said CCA president Nathan Phinney in a recent interview with reporter Robert Arnason of Glacier Media.
“One thing we need to realize is we’re in Canada. We have a world class (beef production) system, a world-class product and producers that do a world class job. We have to stand up for what we do in Canada and be proud of what we do.”
“Yes… there are always things you can do to improve. But we will 100 per cent stand up for everything we do on the landscape, processing, food safety and so on,”said Phinney who farms in New Brunswick.
