There is no chance Canada’s over-quota tariffs for supply managed products will escape cuts during World Trade Organization talks, says a senior United States trade official.
Mark Mannis, senior trade policy official for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s foreign agricultural services, said the framework Canada and 147 other WTO members signed July 31 makes clear the goal is that all tariffs will be cut and the highest tariffs will be cut the most.
“Absolutely, there is no chance your over-quota tariffs will not be touched,” he said after speaking to the Grain Growers of Canada annual meeting Nov. 29. “There was a clear understanding among those who signed the framework that no tariff would escape cuts, no tariff.”
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Former Canadian WTO ambassador John Weekes, now a trade lawyer in Geneva, agreed.
He said in an interview after a speech to the grain growers’ convention that a final WTO deal that does not include cuts to over-quota tariffs is not feasible.
“I believe there will be some tariff cuts,” said Weekes. “But they will not be too deep and the minister will come back still with the means to offer the dairy industry significant protection.”
Canadian ministers and farmers who support the supply management system have insisted that a last-minute word change when the framework was being negotiated July 31 will allow Canada to defend over-quota tariffs at their existing levels. The dairy farmers’ lobby insists there be no reduction in tariffs.
Canadian negotiators succeeded in changing words that initially indicated market access had to come through both tariff rate quota increases and lower over-quota tariffs. The final text said increased market access could be achieved either way.
Dairy farmers and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture celebrated the change to mean over-quota tariffs can remain intact to make import levels more predictable, even though chief agriculture negotiator Steve Verheul has conceded supply management protections will be under attack by most other countries.
“We don’t have many friends on that issue,” he said earlier this autumn.
On Nov. 29, Mannis insisted the issue isn’t debatable: “There was an agreement that all tariffs will be lowered in the interest of greater market access. Period.”
Weekes said Canada’s attempts to promote better export access while defending protected marketing boards and the Canadian Wheat Board are wearing thin. Other countries do not see Canada as a strong promoter of trade liberalization.
“In a way, I think people are seeing through the Canadian position,” he said. “Others really are taking the lead in the export expansion debate.”
