USDA Allowed Import of Canadian Beef, Despite Ban

The Agriculture Department allowed U.S. meatpackers to resume imports of processed beef from Canada in September, just weeks after it publicly reaffirmed its ban on importing those products because mad cow disease had been found in Canadian cattle.

In the next six months, 33 million pounds of Canadian processed beef was imported under a series of undisclosed permits the USDA issued to the meatpackers. The permits remained in effect until a federal judge ruled in April that the USDA had improperly allowed the imports.

The imports -- which involved ground beef, cubed beef and some types of sausage -- were allowed despite an August announcement by the USDA that it was extending an earlier ban on many types of Canadian beef.

Since the agency briefly shut down all imports of Canadian beef in May 2003 after the mad cow discovery, the USDA has been under pressure from Canada and from large U.S. meatpackers with plants across the border to loosen restrictions, which hurt profits.