NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – The hiatus in World Trade Organization negotiations could be a time for Canadian agricultural interests to try to narrow some divides, says the vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Brad Wildeman from PoundMaker Agventures in Lanigan, Sask., told the CCA semi-annual meeting Aug. 16 that successful completion of a WTO deal “is the single most important thing for the future of Canadian agriculture.”
Yet the Canadian government has not been a leader at the talks in advocating for an aggressive trade-liberalizing outcome because it is receiving conflicting advice from an agricultural industry deeply divided between exporters and import-sensitive sectors, he said.
Read Also
Hogs’ transport stress called costly
Poor trailer design and transportation stress are killing pigs and costing the pork industry millions of dollars in penalties, meat quality downgrades and failed welfare audits, according to research by a federal scientist.
The divided farm voice “drives governments crazy and politicians to drink.”
Wildeman said farm leaders on both sides of the divide should try to find common ground that would give the government some room to compromise from its rigid position that over-quota tariffs protecting supply management should not be touched.
He said export interests also would have to agree to accept a less ambitious deal than they have been advocating.
“I don’t know if there is common ground but I think it is at least worth trying to find out,” he said in an interview after speaking to the conference. “Right now, Canada is essentially not a major player because it is caught between these competing domestic arguments.”
If the government was given the signal from industry that compromise will be necessary to get a WTO deal, “maybe Canada could play the role of facilitator to get these talks started again.”
The CCA is part of the free trade lobby Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance that has been pushing the federal government to represent export interests by sacrificing some of the protectionist policies of Canada’s supply managed sectors.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, representing a broad coalition of export and domestic interests, insists export interests can be accommodated without compromising supply management.
Alliance members have complained that the government decision to defend over-quota tariffs has isolated Canada at the talks and shows an undue bias toward the CFA position.
But Alliance vice-president Alanna Koch, who also spoke at the conference, was cool to Wildeman’s suggestion that farm leaders try to find some compromise.
She said in an interview that farm leaders have no obligation to “get the government off the hook” by compromising their interests.
“We have lacked political leadership on this issue and I believe it is time for the government to forcefully promote a deal that would help the greatest number of Canadian farmers,” she said.
Koch urged the Canadian cattle sector and American cattle producers in the room to join other export interests in pressuring governments to rekindle negotiations and to get a deal. Failure to complete negotiations would be devastating for the industry.
“Let’s try to create a crisis and then push our governments to get back to the table to make the decisions that will get us out of that crisis,” she said. “Without a deal, things can, and I promise you will, get worse.”
