OTTAWA – Canadian apple growers, fighting what they consider American dumping into their domestic market, have received a major government endorsement.
This week, they begin to get their day in trade court to argue for help.
On Jan. 6, Revenue Canada announced that after more than five months of investigation, it has confirmed Delicious apples from the U.S. were dumped into the Canadian market in the first half of last year.
The ruling affirms a preliminary judgment made last autumn that Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples were sold into Canada at an average of 22 percent below the market price needed to recapture production costs and a profit.
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
Cause material harm
This week, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) begins hearings on whether that dumping materially harmed Canadian apple growers. A decision, expected to confirm the need for anti-dumping duties, will be rendered by Feb. 9.
Since last year, Canadian producers have been complaining that an influx of more than 550,000 cartons of U.S. apples, mainly from Washington state, drove down the price of Canadian product.
Hardest hit were more than 2,500 producers in British Columbia.
The episode has featured some highly-political fall-out from the 1988 Canada-U.S. free trade deal.
The horticultural industry has been critical of the deal, arguing that in an industry with perishable products, a “snap-back” clause allowing for higher tariffs if import damage can be proved, is ineffective.
By the time damage is proved, the damage has been done.
At first the industry could not convince the government to take up the case.
Finally, the Canadian Horticultural Council presented enough evidence and applied enough pressure that British Columbia-based revenue minister David Anderson called for an investigation.
A finding of damage by the tribunal this month or next would lead to imposition of anti-dumping duties that the Canadian industry said would keep domestic prices up in 1995.
Traditionally, Canada’s 4,500 apple growers, concentrated in B.C. and Ontario, supply 65 percent of the Canadian market. Imports from the U.S. Northwest account for the remaining 35 percent of the market.
