Widely known as mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, eats holes in the brains of cattle, and food contaminated with it can afflict humans with a type of the fatal brain disorder known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. More than 150 people have died from the disorder, mostly in Britain, during an outbreak in the 1990s.

"Our beef is in fact safe," Johanns said, noting the animal in question did not enter the food supply. Rules prohibit the use of animal parts in feed, which is believed to be the cause of the disease. Animals must be killed to be tested.

All three Canadian cases of mad cow disease were in Alberta, including two that surfaced after the United States announced last December it intended to lift the ban, with some restrictions. Johanns said the legal challenge that stopped that from taking place must work its way through the court system but that ultimately the government should win.

The challenge, from a ranchers group in Montana, argued the decision by the government would hurt consumers and the U.S. cattle industry. A judge agreed in March, just before the ban was to have been lifted. The case is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Beef wasn't the only topic at the international trade seminar Tuesday.

Huntsman, who was a U.S. ambassador to Singapore and a government trade representative in Asia, also pressed for answers on how China and other emerging markets would affect the West.

Pete Coors, vice chairman of the recently merged Molson Coors Co., said while sovereignty is important, "I just don't think we should fear free and open trade. It's going to happen whether we like it or not." He said the day is coming when parents will warn their children to get an education because "those poor starving children in China want your job."

The Western states are responsible for 50 percent of the U.S. exports to China, John Audley, an Ohio State University professor, said. In 20 years or so, he said China will have the largest economy in the world, a title the United States has had for some 150 years.

Competition with the European Union for those markets is also a consideration, especially with the recent rejection of the organization's proposed constitution by France and other countries. "It seems as though Europe is experiencing a serious identity crisis," Huntsman said.

Those "growing pains" are likely to slow investment in Europe, at least temporarily, John Audley, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, said.

Huntsman said after the forum that he hoped to bring together local, state and federal agencies in Utah to create an international trade center for export promotion. That will help ensure the success of entrepreneurs willing to invest in biotechnology, aerospace and other cutting-edge industries being developed in Utah, he said.

States will play an increasing role in developing trade opportunities, something he did for the federal government as a U.S. trade representative.

"I'm on a much different side of the issue," he said. "We're just looking at moving faster than the United States government in taking advantage of emerging trade."

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