Chicken farmers and egg producers are confident of a positive outcome
RED DEER — Canada’s chicken industry is confident supply management will remain largely untouched when the Trans Pacific Partnership deal is signed.
“We are confident because the Canadian government has signed nine trade deals since 1994 with 42 countries, and in every single one of those trade agreements they have achieved increased market access for our exporters while preserving supply management in Canada,” Mike Dungate, executive director of Chicken Farmers of Canada, said at the Alberta Chicken Producers annual meeting in Red Deer Feb. 24.
“They have proven time and time again that can be done.”
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International trade stakeholders said securing markets in the face of increasing protectionism should be the key priority for Canada’s agriculture ministers.
The TTP is a proposed trade agreement between 12 nations of the Asia Pacific region, including Canada and the U.S.
Egg Farmers of Canada chair Peter Clark is also hoping for a good deal, but there is concern about the final agreement.
“You never know where things are going to land, particularly with the final hour,” he said in an interview.
“It becomes sometimes a political answer to the question, and political answers are not always the best for some of us.”
The agreement could be completed by the end of this year.
“They really are closing down and finalizing issues. There is a real possibility a TPP agreement may be concluded by this year,” Dungate said.
“Our job is to ensure we maintain supply management through these negotiations.”
Canada and Japan have been criticized for holding up the deal over the protection of specific agricultural commodities, but Dungate argued that is not the case.
He said the key issues are state owned enterprises, intellectual property rights, the environment, pharmaceuticals and market access across the entire economy.
Technical sessions have not always accomplished as much as planned, and a ministerial meeting has been postponed until April, he added.
Dungate said the United States also needs to pass fast track legislation so that Congress can vote yes or no to the deal without debate. In addition, the U.S. and Japan are still negotiating access for agricultural products and automobiles.
“Beef and pork negotiations are pretty much finalized in terms of the access Japan would have to provide on those,” he said.
The U.S. and New Zealand have accused Canada of being a closed market because of its quota system, but Dungate said Canada is the world’s sixth largest food importer.
“It is not Canada that needs to make concessions. It is other countries that need to make concessions and catch up where we are at.”
Canada imports some U.S. chicken duty free, while other countries have a 5.4 percent duty under a tariff rate quota.
The 238 percent tariff over quota has not been charged.
New Zealand does not import chicken, while Mexico will not im-port chicken from Canada because of avian influenza in 2004.
The Canadian chicken industry is worth $3.5 billion a year, according to the Chicken Farmers of Canada website.
