EDMONTON – During a meeting with rural politicians, premier Ed Stelmach vowed to take a tough stand on U.S. policies hurting Alberta farmers.
American country of origin labelling is little more than a trade barrier disguised as a food safety issue, the premier told the Alberta Association of Alberta Districts and Counties March 19.
“Labelling a can does not prove anything about food safety. Temperature control, quality control, packaging. That’s food safety. But just identify what country that it came from doesn’t mean it’s safe,” said Stelmach, who is concerned Alberta will be shut out of lucrative American markets.
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“How do you label a Campbell’s soup can? Some of the vegetables could be sourced from Lethbridge. The meat could be from Alberta as well, or Ontario. Some product could be from Mexico. I can tell you no department or food store is going to broaden their shelf space for Campbell’s soups and have one can labelled American product, the next Canadian-American and the third Mexican-Canadian-American. It won’t happen. Under the veil of food safety this is actually a trade barrier.”
Stelmach said the provincial government plans to work with the federal government and agriculture groups to try and prevent Americans from shutting Canadians out of their main market.
“We’re going to work very closely with the federal government, but we’re going to take a very tough stand in these areas. Because it is our future, and if we lose some of that in negotiations in the next year or two, it’s going to be very difficult to get it back,” he said.
“You can be certain this government is committed and will stand by your side in these rough times and work out various solutions to the issues.”
Alberta agriculture minister George Groeneveld said he was pleased the premier raised the issue of U.S. protectionism.
“To me it was a wonderful endorsement of what I was trying to do. I’m so pleased to have the premier come out and say what he did today. Those are the issues that we are dealing with,” said Gro-eneveld.
“Americans will always be our No. 1 trading partner, but we have to have more than America. We’re always held hostage to the Americans.”
Groeneveld said the easiest market to develop is the domestic one. Alberta plans to work with other provinces to reduce interprovincial trade barriers to make trade within Canada easier.
