The trade liberalization-promoting Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance found itself on the defensive last week after an internal CAFTA memo to members expressed concern that the Conservative government’s attempt to curry favour with Quebec could tilt it toward defending supply management.
Once the memo became public, CAFTA president Liam McCreery quickly distanced himself from the message.
The Ontario oilseed and grain producer said the alliance promotes its own interests rather than attacking the interests of other members.
He said the tone of the memo was a mistake.
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“Both privately and publicly, that was not CAFTA’s messaging,” he said. “We promote our own interests and those include the most ambitious trade deal (at the World Trade Organization) we can achieve.”
The National Farmers Union condemned what it called the group’s “narrow and extreme” views.
“CAFTA has singled out Quebec and Quebec farmers as the problem and not the solution for Canada’s interests domestically and at the WTO,” NFU president Stewart Wells said in an open letter to prime minister Stephen Harper. “By specifically mentioning Quebec, CAFTA seems to be making this an issue of national unity, as if it is Quebec versus the rest of the country.”
Wells said supply management helps farmers across the country.
At the centre of the incident was an April 5 message from CAFTA executive director Patty Townsend to alliance members including cattle, canola, some wheat and agribusiness interests. She urged members to contact Harper and other government officials and MPs to urge a strong push at WTO talks for trade liberalization.
She said the previous day’s Throne Speech gave “a great deal of space” to Quebec’s interests.
“The PMO (prime minister’s office) appears to be leaning toward also making strong accommodation for Quebec’s interests at the WTO,” she wrote in a message meant to be private. “In other words, (it means) a strong focus on the protection of supply management without the equivalent focus on the need for an ambitious outcome for Canada’s international trade-dependent sectors.”
Townsend said Harper has criticized Canada’s role at WTO negotiations since 2001 as “almost an empty chair when it comes to agriculture talks … . Now it is time to fill that chair.”
NFU president Wells speculated that CAFTA might have done itself harm with the government by describing Canada’s different trade goals in regional terms.
He noted that the Conservatives, who made a 10-seat Quebec breakthrough in the Jan. 23 election, are working hard to broaden party support in the province.
“Our impression is that if the prime minister sees the choice as between the farmers and voters of Quebec or CAFTA position on undermining supply management, the PMO would favour the legitimate interests of Quebec farmers and a policy that works for Canadian farmers,” he said.
