OTTAWA – U.S. agriculture secretary Dan Glickman will get a chance this month to do something no other foreign politician has likely ever done – help design a Canadian farm program.
When he meets Canadian agriculture minister Ralph Goodale in Quebec City next week to talk about trade irritants, Glickman will be asked what type of farm safety net program would be acceptable to the Americans.
Goodale said last week Glickman’s views will influence the type of farm income safety net program that Canada eventually establishes, since one of the criteria is that the new program not be liable to trade challenge from the Americans.
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“It will be useful to see what the Americans might say. We’ll talk about our various approaches to safety nets and how we can collectively, by program design, avoid future border problems,” said Goodale.
In effect, Glickman is being brought into the negotiations even as Ottawa and the provinces continue to argue over details of the new safety net program.
Americans have been prone to label Canadian income support as a form of subsidy which can make exported product liable to countervail.
In fact, the Canadian hog industry awaits yet another U.S. International Trade Commission ruling on whether income supports provided through the Net Income Stabilization Account are subsidies subject to countervail duty.
