The Canadian government would not sign an international agreement on investment rules if there was any danger it would undermine farm product marketing boards, say senior government officials.
Critics of a proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment have warned that protection for investors could give foreign corporations leverage to challenge restrictions imposed by single-desk selling agencies.
But trade minister Sergio Marchi insists Canada will sign no deal that undermines key Canadian policies such as health care, education and social programs.
He said sensitive agricultural policies are part of that bottom line.
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“We will not accept an agreement that adversely affects Canada’s supply management regime,” Marchi told a trade conference in Ottawa recently. “We will take the necessary reservations to preserve investment measures specific to our agricultural interests and sensitivities.”
Last week, senior foreign affairs and agriculture department officials told the House of Commons agriculture committee that the assurance extends to the Canadian Wheat Board.
“Before any Canadian government signs off an agreement we would go through every provision to examine it to make sure there are no adverse effects on single-desk sellers,” Agriculture Canada trade official Mike Gifford told MPs.
John Gero, director general of the foreign affairs department’s trade policy bureau, said a proposed investment agreement would help attract money into the Canadian food sector and help protect Canadian firms investing in agriculture abroad.
But he said the government will not sign at any cost, and a threat to Canadian agricultural marketing schemes would be too high a cost.
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The assurances were welcomed by Liberal MPs, who have heard criticism of a proposed MAI from such farm groups as the National Farmers Union and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and faced an angry national campaign by the Council of Canadians.
Critics have worried the proposed agreement under discussion among 29 developed nations working through the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris would give foreign capitalists too much power to challenge national rules.
“I’m glad to hear you say you won’t sign any agreement that affects supply management,” southern Ontario Liberal Rose-Marie Ur told Gero. “I hope that’s what we’re doing.”
But Reform MP Jake Hoeppner and Conservative Rick Borotsik wondered if the government was setting too many pre-conditions. Both support an MAI.
“You can’t really afford not to bargain some things away or you lose more on the other side of the equation,” said Hoeppner.
“Hasn’t the government put handcuffs on our negotiators?” asked Borotsik.
Gero disagreed. He said all countries have gone into the negotiations with demands for some exemptions.
“I don’t think we’re handcuffed at all,” said the foreign affairs trade official who has been involved in the negotiations in Paris. “It is relatively easy for us. We have clear instructions and we know our bottom line.”
He said hopes are fading that a deal can be reached by April. American negotiators have started to back away from an early deal.
