The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is vowing to fight a federal-provincial agreement on regulating agricultural trade within Canada saying it undermines agriculture and marketing boards.
“Our lawyers looked at the text this morning and confirmed that this is not safe for us,” CFA president Laurent Pellerin said from his Quebec farm Oct. 16.
The deal to rewrite and strengthen the agricultural chapter of the 14-year-old Agreement on Internal Trade was made when federal and provincial ministers met Oct. 15 in Whitehorse.
While ministers excluded supply management and provincial marketing boards, they agreed that “technical measures” that disrupt interprovincial trade will be subject to complaints before a trade dispute panel if the Whitehorse deal is approved by Ottawa, 10 provinces and the two northern territories that have signed the AIT. Nunavut has not.
“It constitutes a major improvement over the current chapter as it extends its coverage to all technical measures related to agricultural products,” said the communiqué issued by ministers. “This will further facilitate inter-provincial trade for the benefit of all Canadians including producers and processors.”
That is not how Pellerin saw it. The deal left him fuming.
He said that CFA lawyers concluded it could leave agriculture vulnerable.
Provincial rules on content requirements, including compositional rules or definitions of required organic content, could be challenged if they block product from provinces where those standards do not apply. “This is dangerous and the implications are not clear.”
Even more infuriating, he said, was the fact that ministers rewrote the agricultural chapter of the AIT without consulting farmers.
The president of the Dairy Processors Association of Canada saw the Whitehorse agreement differently.
Don Jarvis was enthusiastic.
“From a dairy processor point of view, it is very encouraging and positive because this really says everything is on the table,” he said Oct. 16. “Any time there is a disconnect between the trade ideal and provincial regulations can now be challenged. There are many barriers that now can be challenged.”
Pellerin said CFA and its members will lobby federal and provincial ministers not to sign the pact until farmers are consulted and any perceived problems are amended.
