[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 23 (Thursday, March 3, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S1961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JOINT RESOLUTION ON DISAPPROVAL

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the resolution that 
comes before us disapproving the actions of the Department of 
Agriculture on the importation of Canadian beef into the United States. 
But in doing so, I do not denigrate the efforts that are being made to 
have a debate on a legitimate public policy issue, but to put it in 
context.
  First, from the standpoint of my chairmanship of the Senate Finance 
Committee with jurisdiction over international trade, I think this is 
something for which we have developed policies over the last couple 
decades, where we have worked very hard to see that several rights can 
be preserved.
  One, probably basic to this debate, is obviously the sovereign right 
of any country to make sure that it does not in any way allow products 
into the country that would in any way hurt the health and safety of 
the consumers of that particular country. I think every trade agreement 
takes that into consideration.
  Within the last 10 or 15 years, we have worked very hard and have 
included in our trade agreements rules concerning sanitary and 
phytosanitary measures. These rules require that science, as opposed to 
political science, be the basis upon which we base decisions as to 
whether a product is safe to enter the U.S. market.
  So I hope during this debate that we keep in mind that we do have 
commitments to rely on science when making determinations as to whether 
products are safe. Hopefully, each country respects that. Particularly 
the United States, being a leader in the rule of law in international 
trade, ought to do that. But we expect every country that comes under 
the WTO to do exactly the same, and the same holds with other trade 
agreements. We also, of course, reserve the right to make sure our food 
is safe.

  For the debate we are in now, I hope we remember that if it had not 
been for mad cow disease in Canada, there would never be any such 
discussion before the Senate because over a long period of time we had 
imports of beef from Canada, and we have been exporting our red meat 
and other food products to Canada. So if we had not had mad cow disease 
in Canada, then we would not be debating this issue.
  So when it gets to the issue of whether mad cow disease is an issue 
with Canadian beef coming into the country, then let's remember that 
decision ought to be made strictly on the sound science of whether that 
meat is safe. If we are going to make a political decision in place of 
a scientific decision as to whether Canadian beef should come into the 
country, then, of course, our purity in international trade is going to 
be questioned by other countries.
  The second point is that, during this very same period of time when 
we have been having this problem with Canada as to whether their meat 
is safe to come into the country, we have also been trying to negotiate 
with the Japanese because we had one mad cow case and the Japanese and 
other countries are not taking our beef. We have been working over the 
last several months to get Japan to take our beef based upon the 
principle that we are following the sanitary and phytosanitary rules, 
on a scientific basis, for making sure our meat is safe for the 
Japanese consumers. We do not want to get ourselves into a position 
where we are going to ignore the science of the safety of meat in 
Canada versus--
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Murkowski). The Senator's time has 
expired.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I will finish one sentence, if I 
could.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. I am happy to yield the Senator an additional 30 
seconds.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. We do not want to get ourselves in a position of having 
the Japanese say to us our meat is not safe even though it is shown to 
be safe based on sound science. Since we want our beef to go to Japan 
because it is safe, then, obviously, if meat is safe coming in from 
Canada, it has to be received as well.

                          ____________________