Farm representatives say Canadian agricultural exporters would benefit significantly if Canada negotiated a good free trade deal with Colombia.
However, they told MPs on the House of Commons trade committee April 30 that the deal Canadian negotiators are contemplating after months of free trade talks would be a bad deal for Canadian agriculture and should not be signed.
A deal worked out between the United States and Colombia, which Congress has not yet approved, would give American agriculture better access than is being offered to Canada, they added.
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“Beyond the principle that Canada should not settle for less, the Canadian beef industry has very strong economic reasons why we cannot accept a deal that is inferior to the access provided to U.S. beef,” said John Masswohl, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association director of government and international trade relations.
“Every time the U.S. gets better access for its beef than Canada, it becomes more difficult to justify slaughtering cattle in Canada and we increase our reliance on shipping live cattle to the U.S.”
Bruce Webster, general manager of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers Marketing Board, said Colombia could be a significant market if a proper trade deal was signed.
New Democrat MP Peter Julian told the witnesses he believes human rights abuses in Colombia should overshadow commercial interests in the negotiations.
As well, he said that while the U.S. treaty has been submitted to Congress for approval, Congress has refused to give it fast track treatment, which means individual clauses will be open for revision by the politicians, and a vote will not come quickly.
However, he was sympathetic to arguments that Canadian commercial interests should not be put at a disadvantage to competitors.
Canada has an $80 million agricultural trade deficit with Colombia, exporting $200 million worth of product and importing $280 million worth of goods.
Webster said Colombia buys no sugar from Canada but shipped 43,000 tonnes to Canada in recent years.
Masswohl said Colombia has bought no beef from Canada since 2002, which was before BSE was discovered, and would impose an 80 percent tariff on shipments.
And while the Americans negotiated tariff-free access for wheat and barley, Canadian shipments face tariffs of 12 and 10 percent, although they could be raised under Colombian rules if imports increased.
