As Brexit looms, Sandison joins U.S. delegation in London to set the stage for new UK trade agreements

Chris McGann
Communications

WSDA Director Sandison visited U.K. sheep farm
 Baber Sheep Breeding and Consulting. 

WSDA Director Derek Sandison traveled to London with a small delegation of agriculture officials
earlier this month to explore new trade opportunities with the United Kingdom as it negotiates its post-Brexit relationship with the European Union.

The U.K. sponsored the seven-member team of American ag representatives through the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). Sandison joined five other state agriculture directors and NASDA’s CEO Barb Glenn on an itinerary that included farm tours and dozens of meetings with senior British trade and agriculture officials, university leaders, research scientists, farmers and business representatives.

The trade mission came at a time when U.K. leaders are trying to find ways to minimize economic disruption associated with the nation’s push to leave the European Union (EU).

Depending on the outcome of the negotiations, the U.K. will need to explore and expand new agricultural markets to feed its citizens and keep its farm economy afloat.

“As they move towards Brexit, they are very much interested in entering into a free-trade agreement with the United States,” Sandison said.

The meetings were a chance to set the stage for discussions with U.S. trade representatives in the future.

“They wanted to learn more about U.S. agriculture – what some of our issues are, what products we might be interested in exporting and what products we might be interested in importing,” Sandison said.

Sandison toured a UK beef farm on a recent trip to the U.K.

Washington already exports products such as hops and wine to the U.K. But the discussions revealed an opportunity to expand that relationship. Sandison said British officials and producers expressed interest in exporting more lamb, cider and other beverages to the U.S.

The delegation, which represented individual states, was not there to try make a deal, rather they wanted to get a better understanding of the landscape.

“We were there to understand what our producers will be facing when they want to sell products to the U.K. and what the U.K.’s bottom line is,” Sandison said. “A lot of what we talked about are the standards, phytosanitary standards for example, that are imposed currently under EU restrictions and what we can expect if they are free of European Union restrictions.

Compared to U.S. standards, the European Union’s standards are often stricter in areas such as pesticide use, veterinary medicines, and decontamination techniques. This is especially true for food safety standards associated with new technologies in agriculture and food processing such as genetically modified organisms (GMO), growth hormones and lactic acid treatments.

“We were trying to understand what we can expect,” Sandison said. “We wanted to know if they would deviate from the EUs current restrictive approach and liberalize their standards a bit.”

Sandison said British officials expressed interest in moving towards less restrictive import policies, they did not discuss any specific standards.

The U.K. is currently negotiating the terms by which they would conduct trade with the EU after Brexit. The two most likely scenarios at this point include one in which the U.K. comes to an agreement that will allow it to continue to do unrestricted business within the EU. In this case, standards would likely align closely with current EU standards.

Sandison with delegation at Thatchers Cider orchard. The UK
seeks to expand its export markets. 

Another possibility would be a situation in which the U.K. does not reach an agreement with the EU but leaves the union anyway. In this hard-break scenario, Sandison believes they would be more open to adopting standards that would facilitate more trade with U.S. producers.

“If it’s a hard break, then I think they are going to be more interested in getting to a solid agreement with the United States, something that would promote the ease of trade and movement of goods,” Sandison said.

At this stage in the process, the Brexit outcome remains highly uncertain. But whatever the outcome, Sandison’s work with his NASDA partners could well lead to export opportunities in the future.

Visit the WSDA International Marketing Program webpage to learn about other activities WSDA conducts to promote Washington agriculture abroad.

A paradigm shift for disease traceability

Chris McGann
Communications

Veterinarian Jake Murphy swipes a RFID reader wand past
the ear tag on a cow at Everson Auction Market. The system
quickly and accurately records disease traceability information.

During lunch hour on a warm summer day earlier this month, WSDA Director Derek Sandison walked into the Everson Auction Market café and a scene that harkened back to the small-town America of 60 years ago. He settled onto a vintage swivel stool along a narrow lunch counter -- friendly waitress, handwritten menu on the wall, cash only.

Sandison ordered a burger.

This is probably not the first place most people would look to find cutting-edge software or industry-leading technology.

Through the doors behind him, the tidy auction floor was bright with a fresh layer of sawdust. Early birds talked quietly in the bleachers while they waited for the afternoon sale to start.

The pace matched the setting when the bidding began. A tiny Jersey bull calf was first on the block, then a few other slightly larger calves, and finally some individual heifers nervously stamping around the pen against the cadence of the auctioneer’s call.

WSDA Director Derek Sandison (right) hears about a new RFID
project from veterinarians Amber Itle and Brian Joseph. 

But Sandison hadn’t come to buy cattle, or for the nostalgia.  He was there to see the future of animal disease traceability (ADT).

Behind the scenes at this small sale barn in this little town just south of the Canadian border, a demonstration project initiated by WSDA veterinarian Dr. Amber Itle, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is ushering a new era for ADT.

This first-of-its-kind project in Washington is integrating radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that allows sale-yard veterinarian’s to capture electronic ID with a wand reader. This animal health information is used to generate electronic Certificate of Veterinarian Inspections (CVI), brucellosis test records and brucellosis vaccination records in the market system.

Dr. Itle gave Sandison a tour of the facility’s veterinarians inspection area where animals that will be sold at the market and returned to the country receive an official RFID ear tag the vet enters into the system with a wand reader. With that, CVI and vaccinations administered can be quickly and accurately recorded.

Animals headed for slaughter pass by a “panel reader” for RFID in the cattle chute to record the time an place of the animal prior to going to the harvest facility where they will be read one last time to confirm the animal was actually killed.

Sandison was impressed by what he saw.

A Holstein cow moves past an RFID reader panel in a chute
at Everson Auction Market.  

“This program is much more than a demonstration project,” he said. “It’s a paradigm shift for the industry.”

All ADT market data is transmitted electronically to WSDA’s ADT system, “Animal Tracks,” in real time at the close of each sale. Everson has been successfully using the enhancements for more than a year.

ADT is critical to ensuring a rapid response when animal disease events take place. An efficient and accurate traceability system reduces the number of animals and response time involved in a disease investigation, which also reduces the economic impact on cattle producers.

In the last year, WSDA’s ADT Program has focused on building infrastructure for capturing electronic individual identification at public livestock markets and slaughter facilities. This year, WSDA is working to identify additional opportunities to electronically collect traceability movement information during commerce and comingling locations. These comingled locations pose a higher risk for potential disease spread and are a higher priority areas for ADT.

Currently, all of Washington’s major livestock markets are in the process of implementing upgrades. Once completed, WSDA will have full traceability information for 99 percent of market cattle.

Slaughter facilities 

As of February 2019, four of the largest slaughter facilities in Washington are capturing and sharing official individual RFID information at harvest. Currently, WSDA’s Animal Tracks can capture 98 percent of all animals with electronic official individual RFID tags harvested in our state. WSDA is the first state to implement a tag retirement system in the country.

Long-term phasing in for the ADT Program

USDA plans to phase in mandatory official RFID by 2023. Identifying the majority of cattle with RFID is much more accurate and efficient than a system that requires manual recording of individual identification.

WSDA is currently using local and federal funds to purchase official RFID tags for markets collecting and reporting animal health and movement information electronically to the state veterinarian. In addition, WSDA has been using funds to purchase tags in preparation for a tag promotion for veterinarians that perform brucellosis vaccinations and producers that use the Electronic Cattle Transaction Reporting system later this year. Currently, WSDA provides free tags to all markets that report electronically.

This temporary subsidy will help producers transition to the RFID before USDA phases out metal tags starting in December 2019.

For more information about ADT and RFID, visit the Animal Health section of our web page.