Aussie Feeder Cattle
In Mexico Not Coming

WASHINGTON — USDA says 5000 Australian feeder cattle awaiting importation into this country from Mexico will not be coming after all.

Michael Dunn, USDA’s assistant secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, told industry officials late last week that a request for an import permit from his agency has been withdrawn.

The plan to import the Australian feeders as "Mexican" cattle set off a firestorm within the industry on both sides of the border. Spokesmen saw it as a test of liberalized U.S. trade terms with Mexico.

Objections based on animal health concerns apparently scotched the deal. U.S. animal health laws require testing of Australian cattle imports for six diseases, including some which do not occur in Mexico and for which Mexican cattle are not tested before entry into this country.

The concern among U.S. industry representatives was that if the Australian cattle were allowed to be imported as "Mexican," they might escape necessary testing and thus pose a potential health threat to U.S. herds.

Among Mexican cattlemen, the fear was that transshipment of the briefly "naturalized" Australian cattle might jeopardize a crucial agreement which has liberalized access to the U.S. for cattle from Mexican border states.

That agreement followed a lengthy and costly effort by producers in those states to bring their cattle into compliance with U.S. animal health standards. Cattlemen in the "clean" states have found it in their own best interest to guard their borders against other Mexican cattle to preserve their hard-won health status. They did not want to see their work undone by cattle from an entirely different country, and it is reported that cattlemen in Mexico's Chihuahua State wouldn't allow their pens to be used to bring the cattle across.