Cattle producers have high hopes for Canada’s new Agricultural Market Access Secretariat.
“The expectations are quite daunting,” said Fred Gorrell, named director general of AMAS in June.
Speaking to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association foreign trade committee last week in Regina, Gorrell said the secretariat will focus on four or five priority markets as it begins its work co-ordinating government activity and market access.
Those markets haven’t been established, but Gorrell said the choices likely won’t surprise anyone.
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Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and the European Union are all places where Canada, and the beef industry in particular, want to make inroads.
AMAS will cover all commodities, including grain, oilseeds and horticulture.
CCA president Brad Wildeman said when the cattle industry proposed the secretariat, it was thinking the focus would be on red meat. Conversations with other commodity groups demonstrated the need for an expanded mandate.
“It got a lot bigger than any of us thought,” he said. “Our hope is that it will get right on the red meat sector first.”
Gorrell comes to AMAS after serving as executive director of international relations at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. He also spent three years in Washington as an agriculture counsellor during the BSE crisis.
AMAS will be part of the agriculture department’s market and industry services branch.
Gorrell said the secretariat is supposed to complement trade activities undertaken by other departments, not duplicate them.
“Our resources that we’re using are modest,” he said. “Our negotiators, if they’re having technical issues and they need to have a dedicated group, I would see us filling some of that need.”
Gorrell said by mid-September there should be 13 staff members, including seven veterinarians and two plant health specialists.
