Pulse Canada says it could have been working on dismantling a costly trade barrier three years ago if the federal government had been on the ball.
Agriculture Canada contends the association had every opportunity to provide input on the issue but failed to do so.
Earlier this year the pulse industry was caught off guard when China’s grain inspection agency began enforcing a selenium maximum residue limit that had been around since 1991, a move that has severely disrupted sales to Canada’s third largest pea destination and kept a lid on prices.
Read Also
Critical growing season is ahead for soybeans
What the weather turns out to be in the United States is going to have a significant impact on Canadian producers’ prices
Pulse Canada officials have been scrambling to find a solution to the non-tariff trade barrier since April, but it turns out they could have been working on the problem long before that.
In October 2003, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization, it notified WTO members of the 17 maximum residue limits it was using and solicited input from its trading partners on those regulations.
That would have been an opportune time for the Canadian pulse industry to present a case for why selenium contamination in peas does not pose a threat to human health and should not be on China’s list.
Unfortunately, nobody in Ottawa told Pulse Canada about the notification, said association chief executive officer Gord Bacon.
“We would hope that the Canadian government would notify us and give us time to prepare,” he said.
That happens most of the time, but there are times when important “government-to-government” announcements slip through the cracks.
“There have been other examples where changes have been missed by Ottawa,” said Bacon.
Greg Giokas, director of eastern hemisphere trade policy at Agriculture Canada, rejects the assertion that the federal government messed up.
Keeping each other apprised of potentially harmful regulations is a joint responsibility between Ottawa and the grain trade, he said.
Any interested party can track regulatory changes in world markets through a web-based export alert service provided by the Standards Council of Canada.
Many grower associations use the service to provide the federal government with policy direction on regulations they identify as threats to their industry.
“(They) are often better placed than us to understand the impact of specific changes in regulations,” said Giokas.
Regardless of who is to blame, the pulse industry could have used the three-year lead time to diffuse a trade barrier that has cost it millions of dollars.
In 2005 China bought a record $51 million worth of Canadian peas, making it Canada’s third largest customer. It was on pace to shatter that record in 2006.
Exports averaged $8.5 million per month during the first quarter of 2006. But in the second quarter the average tapered off to $1.67 million per month with June’s total falling to $774,636.
The decline coincides with a March 31 announcement by China’s grain inspection agency that it would be taking a closer look at selenium levels in pea shipments from Canada and the United States.
Giokas said the announcement was prompted by an overwhelming surge in exports from Canada. There were so many loads of peas heading to China that some shipments were routed to ports that were unfamiliar with handling the commodity.
Inspectors at those ports dusted off the old regulations and in February two shiploads of peas were rejected for exceeding the long-established selenium limit.
The incident prompted a warning from China’s grain inspection agency that future North American pea shipments would be subject to increased scrutiny.
Cargo testing done by the Canadian Grain Commission on 58 Canadian pea samples between 2002 and 2005 shows an average of 0.427 parts per million of selenium. The maximum level set by China is 0.3 ppm.
Pulse Canada has explained to Chinese authorities that at the selenium level found in Canadian peas, an adult would have to eat one kilogram of the pulse per day to reach the upper level of selenium recommended by the World Health Organization.
It has also raised the issue that China is one of the few places in the world where people suffer from a dietary deficiency of selenium and that it is one of the only countries to establish a tolerance level for the element.
The pulse association’s latest argument is that Chinese regulators should be measuring how much selenium is contained in finished products rather than raw peas sitting on the dock.
The vast majority of Canadian yellow pea imports are used in the production of vermicelli noodles. Pulse Canada has evidence showing the selenium stays with the protein, which is a waste product in the production of starch noodles, resulting in low levels of contamination in the finished product.
However, Bacon said the back-and-forth between the Canadian and Chinese governments takes time and there is no resolution in sight as harvest progresses, which will continue to have a negative impact on the prices growers receive for their peas.
“I don’t think anyone can be happy with the length of time it is taking to resolve this issue,” he said.
Giokas said Chinese millers need the peas as desperately as Canadian exporters want to sell them, so he hopes Chinese health officials will agree the issue deserves a new scientific evaluation.
“We’re in the middle of negotiations,” he said.
