OTTAWA (Staff) – On both sides of the 49th parallel, the dairy industry is manoeuvring for strategic political advantage before this autumn’s showdown over supply management.
It is an argument over which country is the most open trader in dairy products, as U.S. companies turn their eyes toward a Canadian market they have been denied full access to over the years.
Canadian dairy farmer spokesperson Claude Rivard last week accused the Americans of calculated hypocrisy in their campaign to appear like free traders.
A leading U.S. dairy spokesperson earlier had accused Canada of violating its trade commitments by offering less dairy market access than is required. Rivard said Canada is offering twice as much access as is the U.S.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
“U.S. attempts to paint themselves as world champion free traders is yet another of their schemes to try and hide the truth,” Rivard said in a statement issued by Dairy Farmers of Canada. “They don’t want free trade, they want a U.S.-style give-and-take relationship – we give them access to our markets and they take it.”
He was responding to complaints from Linwood Tipton, president of the International Dairy Foods Association of the U.S., that Canada continues to be restrictive.
Dairy Farmers of Canada statistics indicate that while Canada allows 4.28 percent of its dairy market to be filled by imports in 1995, the U.S. allows just 1.86 percent.
This political sparring is a preamble to a legal battle looming this month. That’s when a trade disputes panel will be set up to hear American arguments that Canada does not have the right to protect its supply managed dairy, egg and poultry sectors with high tariffs.
Canada plans to argue that the tariffs, which this year replaced volume import restrictions, are legal under new world trade rules.
The judgment is expected by late this year or early 1996.
