Federal trade minister Jim Peterson said Oct. 18 the federal government will throw all the resources it can into fighting the U.S. duty on hogs.
He said the Canadian government tried and failed to persuade the Americans that the action is unjustified.
“In this trade dispute, which is very unfortunate, we have an integrated market in North America,” Peterson said in the House of Commons under opposition questioning.
“And once again, the Americans have taken punitive action against our hog producers who can compete with the best in the world and we are going to stand behind them and fight this antidumping action with all the resources that we have.”
Read Also
Supreme Court gives thumbs-up emoji case the thumbs down
Saskatchewan farmer wanted to appeal the court decision that a thumbs-up emoji served as a signature to a grain delivery contract.
He noted that Canada consistently wins at the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement panels when challenging U.S. protectionism.
Conservative agriculture critic Diane Finley had used the daily House of Commons question period to accuse the government of mismanaging the Canada-U.S. file to the detriment of farmers. She said Canadian hog exporters “now have to post potentially crippling bonds on their pork exports to the United States.”
Although federal and provincial agriculture ministers spent some time at a September meeting in Prince Edward Island planning for government help and reaction if the U.S. decision went against Canada, federal minister Andy Mitchell was not available Oct. 18 for comment on potential government support strategies.
He returned on the weekend from a trade mission to Asia trying to pry open markets for another troubled agricultural export commodity – beef.
In Ontario, Canada’s second largest hog exporter reacted by announcing a special marketing operations fee on the province’s 3,700 producers and buyers. The rate was to be set Oct. 18 at a special Ontario Pork board meeting.
Larry Skinner, chair of Ontario Pork, said in a statement issued from Guelph that it is another unfair attack by American protectionists.
“Ontario hogs are fairly traded. There is one North American price, and we sell at that price in both Canada and the United States. Ontario farmers should not have to defend themselves against protectionist litigation.”
