OTTAWA — Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says he will raise India’s decision to not renew a pest-treatment exemption for Canadian pulses when he is in that country next week.
The minister left Feb. 26 for a trade mission to Vietnam and India to promote Canadian products in those expanding markets. He returns March 10.
Increasing trade in the region is important, he said, but he will address the concerns of pulse exporters who have had to deal with the uncertainty of six-month extensions to the exemption for more than a decade.
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India requires crops to be fumigated in the originating country but has exempted Canada and other countries because the treatment doesn’t always work in colder temperatures.
India said last month that it wouldn’t extend the exemption beyond the current one that ends March 31.
Canada has submitted a proposal to use phytosanitary certificates rather than fumigation, but Indian authorities have not yet responded.
“My department is working with their counterparts in India trying to resolve the issue, and I can assure you that I will be bringing it to the attention of my counterparts in India, too,” MacAulay told reporters at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture meeting.
“But is there resolve now? No.”
Southeast Asia isn’t the only area of trade concern. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has said the North American Free Trade Agreement needs “tweaking,” and the American dairy sector wants Canada’s supply management system included in any renegotiation.
MacAulay wouldn’t tip Canada’s hand on how it will handle those issues. He said the government won’t say publicly how it is preparing.
“It’s so dangerous to put something on the table because basically the table is not set yet,” he told CFA delegates.
“But I can give you one thing: I will do everything in my living power to protect (supply management).”
Delegates unanimously passed a resolution to lobby Ottawa to oppose any NAFTA changes that would undermine market access for export commodities or change tariff rate quotas or over-quota tariffs for dairy, poultry and egg products.
They also want regular briefings and consultations between the government and Canadian farm organizations and commodity groups as trade negotiations un-fold.
