The European Union is debating a plan that would end its grain export subsidies within two to three years.
After a meeting in Brussels Nov. 13 with EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler, federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said an end to export subsidies is part of the grain pricing reform plan being pushed through EU countries by the commission.
For more than two decades, the EU has used export subsidies to dispose of domestic surpluses. They led directly to the grain subsidy wars of the 1980s.
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“He (Fischler) felt very strongly on that (eliminating subsidies),” said Vanclief. “They are pushing very strongly for an end to export subsidies on grain by the year 2000. He seemed pretty optimistic that they’ll be able to do that.”
The federal minister said it would solve Canada’s complaints about an EU export subsidy on barley, which is disrupting world malt markets and which Vanclief protested during their two-hour meeting.
He said Fischler could make no promises on export subsidies “but that is the direction they want to move. We just have to wait now to see if he can deliver.”
However, he had less optimistic news on other trade files with Europe.
Genetically altered
Vanclief, in Europe to chair a Rome meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said he was unable to budge European agriculture ministers on the issue of allowing freer access for genetically altered products into Europe.
And he found the Europeans still opposed to allowing hormone-treated meat onto the continent.
“I was less enthusiastic about the response I got on hormones,” he told reporters in a telephone news conference from Rome Nov. 13.
However, the minister said he thinks progress is being made on the European threat to ban tallow imports from North America because of a fear of importing spongiform encephalopathies, including so-called mad cow disease.
When Vanclief told the Europeans again that Canada does not have mad cow disease, this time he thought they were listening and understanding. He came out of the meeting “cautiously optimistic” that an agreement can be reached.
A ban would close a $60 million market for a Canadian livestock industry byproduct.
“I’m optimistic on tallow but I don’t want to lead anyone to believe it is going to happen next week,” said Vanclief.
The EU commissioner heard Vanclief promise the Canadian inspection system ensures BSE does not exist in Canada.
“Their decision could really not be based on science,” he said. “It was based on the paranoia they have over their experience with BSE in the last year or so.”
