U.S. Ambassador Blames Election on Mad Cow Dispute

From AP. I know this is interest to many in the community...

American domestic politics in a presidential election year have contributed to the delay in reopening the U.S. market to Canadian beef, U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci said Wednesday.

Cellucci, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, blamed Democrats in the run-up to the Nov. 2 vote that pits President Bush against Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry.

Cellucci told Ottawa business leaders that a minority of interests the United States have challenged and delayed U.S. Agriculture Department rule changes that would have ended the mad cow-induced ban on Canadian beef imports.

"I don't want to say there's not politics involved," Cellucci said. "It is an election year."

The ambassador singled out Tom Daschle, the Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota, as a prime mover against Canadian beef interests.

"He and other senators have written the Department of Agriculture to say, `Don't let the beef in from Canada,'" Cellucci said. "And it's not based upon sound science. So that's why things have slowed down."