Dairy farmers caught prime minister Jean ChrŽtien’s ear two weeks ago as they escalated their campaign to block imports of a butteroil/sugar blend used in ice cream production.
The government is allowing it to be imported tariff-free, despite dairy farmer arguments the product was created just to circumvent supply management tariff protection.
The farmers insist it should be subjected to tariffs, since it displaces $20 million worth of Canadian cream used in ice cream making and reduces dairy farmer income by as much as $50 million.
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The Liberals have referred the issue to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, which opens hearings in early April. Dairy Farmers of Canada is boycotting the hearings, claiming action is needed rather than studies.
On Feb. 27, during a visit by ChrŽtien to London, Ont., 120 dairy farmers protested outside the meeting room.
Finally, Dairy Farmers of Ontario president John Core was invited to make his pitch directly to the prime minister.
Later in an interview, Core said he told ChrŽtien that dairy farmers would appear before the tribunal only if the mandate of the study was broadened and if imports of the butteroil blend were stopped while the investigation continues.
ChrŽtien repeated the government position that the dairy farmers should be at the hearings to reflect their views.
“The best part of this process is that the prime minister himself directly knows there is a problem here, there is an issue here and hopefully we will get a response from his office,” said Core.
In Ottawa the same day, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief became testy when pressed on the same issue by a delegate to the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
Why doesn’t the government follow the trade obligations it agreed to when supply management protections were lost in the 1993 world trade negotiations, asked a Nova Scotia delegate.
Dairy farmers were promised tariff protection would replace border controls on imports. The government has let down dairy farmers by not enforcing rules it negotiated.
Vanclief argued that dairy farmers who gained from using trade rules to fend off an American attack on supply management under the North American Free Trade Agreement now want to pick and choose which trade rules they accept.
“You can’t have it both ways.”
The day the dairy farmers were demonstrating in London, Laurie Curry, vice-president of the powerful lobby group for Canada’s multi-billion food manufacturing industry, was arguing that dairy farmers should quit protesting and work within the trade hearing process to make their point.
In a Feb. 27 interview from Toronto, Curry denied the butteroil import issue is an attempt to undermine or destroy supply management.
She said it is a question of giving consumers a choice of lower-grade, lower priced ice cream, as well as higher-grade ice creams made with domestic product.
“Where is the consumer in all of this?” she asked. “To listen to the dairy farmers, they do not seem to be part of the equation.”
