Industry happy with final details | Agreement must now be passed by both parliaments
The official release of the Canada-European Union Trade Agreement text last week brought overwhelmingly positive reaction from Canadian agricultural organizations and commodity groups.
The National Farmers Union was a lone voice of dissent, suggesting the agreement is full of empty promises.
The agreement was five years in the making and still requires ratification by the Canadian and European parliaments. It is to be implemented in 2016.
The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance has estimated new agri-food exports will total $1.5 billion, including $600 million in beef, $400 million in pork, $50 million in bison, $90 million in canola, $20.5 million in wheat, $1.9 million in other grains and $50 million in biofuel.
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Bryan Rogers, executive director of Grain Growers of Canada, said his organization has supported CETA from the beginning.
“We’re talking about opening up a new market potentially of 500 million-some consumers, and that could mean big gains for farmers,” he said.
“They have tastes very similar to ours, so Canadian ag products are very attractive to them.”
He said increasing livestock ex-ports means more domestic de-mand for feed grain.
Rogers said the deal isn’t out of the woods until the ratification votes take place, which could take two years.
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Dave Solverson cheered the removal of high tariffs for beef.
Under the agreement, the EU will provide duty-free access for 64,950 tonnes of beef. Of that, 50,000 tonnes will come from Canada. And of that, 35,000 tonnes will be fresh-chilled beef and 15,000 tonnes will be frozen.
The 20 percent duty on the current 14,950 tonne quota shared with the United States will be immediately reduced to zero once the deal is in place. The existing duty-free quota for high quality grain-fed beef will also continue.
The CCA estimates that the potential duty-free access for beef will be 100,000 tonnes once all the measures are taken into account.
The Canadian Pork Council said the agreement secures duty-free access for processed pork products as soon as the agreement comes into place.
Canada will acquire a quota volume equivalent to 80,000 tonnes of pork cuts, said a council statement.
Canada’s pork sector is heavily dependent on exports, and shipments to Europe are essentially non-existent right now because of tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
However, the NFU said its analysis of the text indicates negative consequences for Canadian farmers.
Ann Slater, vice-president of policy, said in a news release that the agreement “changes nothing re-garding Europe’s commitment to avoiding food made from genetically modified crops, beef raised with hormones and pork raised with growth promoters.”
Terry Boehm, chair of the NFU’s seed and trade committee, also expressed concern that the agreement will allow seed companies to ask the courts to seize assets of farmers for alleged infringement on patent rights or plant breeders’ rights before a case is even heard.
Criticism has also been heard in Germany, where there are reports that country is opposed to a clause regarding investor-state dispute settlements.
These provisions allow foreign investors to access an international tribunal if they think a host government is breaching commitments made in a trade agreement.
However, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said in Ottawa last week that all member states, including Germany, fully backed CETA.
In Saskatchewan, the provincial government praised the end of the negotiations and noted that aside from the agricultural benefits, the province will also see restrictions eased on European investment in uranium mining.
