Groundwork Underway To Stop
"Dumping" Of Foreign Cattle

HERREID, S.D. —(AP)— A Washington law firm is doing legal groundwork on a petition to the International Trade Commission that could help curb the dumping of foreign cattle on the U.S. beef market, a Montana cattleman says.

Leo McDonnell, a Columbus, Mont., cattle producer and the founder of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Foundation, or R-CALF, said a petition for import relief would require the ITC to begin an investigation into how imports may be breaking the law.

"We're not talking about changing any laws. We're not talking about shutting any borders down," McDonnell told some 700 cattle producers at a gathering here recently. "We're talking about implementing the laws that are on the books."

Live cattle imports have increased from about one percent of domestic production in the early 1980s to nearly eight percent by 1995, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Imported beef has seen a similar increase.

R-CALF believes those factors may have cost cattle producers about 25 percent of the value of a calf.

McDonnell said beef producers need to follow the lead of other industries in filing legal action to see that countries such as Canada don't unfairly dump beef on the U.S. market.

He said American tomato growers filed an action that brought Mexican producers to the bargaining table. The steel industry routinely files actions to see that other steel-producing nations don't unfairly compete in the U.S. market.

McDonnell said a Washington law firm that has represented the tomato and steel industries in similar actions has done the preliminary work for an action on behalf of beef producers.

Practices that might be unfair include the possibility that Canada is artificially suppressing the price of feed barley by $30 a ton. McDonnell said that would amount to a $60 advantage for each Canadian animal over a U.S. animal because it takes about two tons of feed to fatten an animal.

R-CALF is seeking support of ag organizations and individuals. It wants help raising money and organizing support for its legal action. It's also seeking contributions — suggested at $1 a head — from cattle producers who want to get behind the effort.

Eagle Butte, S.D., rancher Frank Tibbs said he may contribute to the effort after he thinks it over. Like other ranchers, he said he knows imports are hurting his industry.

"People knew about it, but they couldn't do anything," he said. "Now I think they can."