MOOSE JAW – American farmers look at Canada’s own-use pesticide import policy with envy.
“Keep doing what you’re doing,” urged North Dakota agriculture commissioner Roger Johnson.
He thinks that will send the right message on both sides of the border that there should be regulatory harmonization and price parity.
In 2000, North Dakota began tracking prices of 35 common herbicides in the state and in Saskatchewan.
That year the survey found that North Dakota farmers could have saved $25 million US if they had been able to import at the Canadian price. But over time that has shifted, the value of each country’s currency notwithstanding.
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“The relative price differential is working against you as time goes on,” Johnson told the Farming For Profit conference.
He said for every example where a pesticide is cheaper in Saskatchewan, there is another where it is cheaper in North Dakota.
“As long as pesticide companies are able to segregate the market on both sides of the border, they’re going to do it,” Johnson said.
Pressure from the Canadian government on the U.S. to work toward harmonization is “delightful,” he said.
Glenn Caleval, vice-president of marketing and sales for Farmers of North America, said even if full harmonization is achieved, there will still be a need for own-use imports.
He said competition from countries like Brazil doesn’t mean harmonization between the U.S. and Canada is “the end of the journey.”
He noted that in 2002 CropLife America said the U.S. should have an own-use import program.
Johnson said that statement was made under “extreme duress” and didn’t reflect what the chemical industry really wanted.
“This price differential (between North Dakota and Saskatchewan) has nothing to do with costs,” he said. “It has everything to do with how much they can charge.”
Johnson serves as vice-president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, which has called for joint approval procedures of identical pesticide products.
Several years ago NASDA asked the Environmental Protection Agency to work with Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency to develop a process for that to work.
Meanwhile Caleval said Canadians need an own-use import program for generic chemicals. Within the next decade almost every product will come off patent, he said.
