Canada’s beleaguered hog industry is warning that a $125 million export market is in jeopardy if Canada does not complete free trade talks with South Korea soon.
The United States has completed an agreement. Chile and the European Union also have signed deals.
“The Canadian pork industry is very concerned that postponing the FTA talks any further will seriously affect the competitiveness of the pork industry and all other Canadian sectors exporting to Korea,” said a Jan. 12 statement from the pork industry and the Canadian Meat Council.
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Canadian Pork International president Edouard Asnong said competitor deals with Korea could mean Canada’s current trade “would completely disappear.”
Canadian Pork Council president Jurgen Preugschas said the stakes for hog producers, suffering from years of losses because of low market prices, shrinking sales and inadequate program support, are high.
“An American study evaluated the benefits for the U.S. pork sector of an FTA between the U.S. and Korea at $10 per hog (US),” he said in the statement released in Ottawa Jan. 12.
“The Canadian context is different but the impact would be somewhat similar.”
University of Guelph agriculture economics professor Karl Meilke told an Ottawa conference on the future of the food industry Jan. 14 that a Korea trade deal is key because Canadian agriculture depends on foreign market access.
“There is an agreement sitting on a desk in Washington,” he said. “We should have an agreement sitting on a desk here as well.”
But there is a split between Canadian meat exporters on the question of a trade deal with South Korea.
Pork wants a deal because it assumes it will benefit. Beef argues there cannot be a deal unless it benefits as well and access to South Korea for beef has been blocked since the 2003 BSE outbreak in Alberta.
Canada-Korea talks have been stalled since 2008 with the beef access issue a large part of the impasse.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association remains adamant that as a condition to resuming trade talks, Korea must bend on its opposition to beef access.
Negotiations can be resumed only when it is clear beef access will be part of the deal.
“Korea must provide terms of access as least as favourable for Canadian beef as they have done for American beef or better and they must remove their BSE restrictions either fully or partially in a manner that provides commercially meaningful access as an interim step,” CCA government relations and trade specialist John Masswohl said in a Jan. 15 email.
“We are confident that officials will resume the negotiations when they feel these conditions can be satisfied.”
