American domestic politics in a presidential election year have contributed to the long delay in re-opening the U.S. border to Canadian beef, U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci said last week.

And Cellucci, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, pointed the finger squarely at Democrats in the run-up to the Nov. 2 vote that has President George W. Bush in a dead heat with Democratic Senator John Kerry.

Cellucci told an Ottawa business audience that a minority of interests south of the border 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.”

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

Daschle is up for re-election, said Cellucci, “and, you know, he’s very much opposed to this beef coming in. He and other senators have written the Department of Agriculture to say, ‘Don’t let the beef in from Canada.’

“And it’s not based upon sound science. So that’s why things have slowed down.”

The U.S. border was closed to Canadian beef after a single case of mad-cow disease was discovered in Alberta in May 2003. Live cattle under 30 months and some cuts of beef have since been permitted to cross.

The impasse has crippled the Canadian beef industry and cost producers as much as $2 billion to date.

Cellucci was asked by reporters if the outcome of next month’s presidential vote could further delay resolution of the dispute, depending on who wins. His answer was not entirely reassuring.

“I would hope not. I would not expect that, but there is some opposition to this in the U.S.,” said the ambassador.

Earlier this month, Premier Ralph Klein complained the border would likely remain shut to Canadian beef if a “protectionist” Kerry won the White House.

But it is highly unusual for a U.S. ambassador to make such overtly partisan charges.

Cellucci has said he won’t seek a second four-year appointment in Ottawa regardless of who wins the vote.

He’s predicting the border will be fully opened to Canadian beef in a matter of months, once “bullet-proof” Agriculture Department rule changes work their way through the administrative approval process and the inevitable court challenges.

“But we need to look beyond that,” said Cellucci.

“We need to establish protocols here in North America and around the world so that we do not let isolated cases of BSE close down the borders.”