U.S. worries about Canadian meat flagged in memo
An internal Foreign Affairs memo expressed concern that U.S. "confidence in the Canadian food safety system" could be undermined in the wake of last fall's XL Foods beef recall.
Josée De Menezes, the department's acting director of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Division, expressed that concern on Sept. 27 in a widely distributed departmental briefing note obtained under the Access to Information Act by CBC News Network's Power & Politics.
Specifically, the note refers to a U.S. campaign to halt a meat pre-clearance pilot project that is part of the Canada-U.S. Beyond the Border initiative announced last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama.
The year-long pilot project was scheduled to begin in September, but CBC News has learned it has yet to get underway.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/14/pol-foreign-affairs-cfia-us-meat-inspection-xl-foods.html
Jan 14, 2013 5:15 PM ET