The federal government has been told its plan to eliminate part of the bureaucracy required for poultry imports is a bad idea.
Robert de Valk, executive secretary of the Canadian Association of Regulated Importers, which bring poultry products into Canada through supply management’s tariff rate quota guaranteed access, urged MPs on the House of Commons food safety committee May 4 to recommend the government change its mind.
At issue is a longstanding policy that allows into Canada only products with a label previously approved and registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
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De Valk told the committee studying food safety and the fatal 2008 listeria outbreak that pre-registered labels are a key food safety protection.
“Normally, a copy of the registered label, approved and registered by the CFIA, is sent to the inspector in charge at the foreign plant so that inspector has something to look at when he’s signing the export certificate for Canada.”
He said pre-approved labels are a key part of the plan to protect Canadians from inferior poultry product imports.
“The pivotal role played by prior label registration as an efficient and effective means of keeping out imports that do not meet Canadian requirements … seems to be underestimated by the current government.”
He said the government’s decision to unilaterally eliminate this requirement is perplexing because none of Canada’s key trading partners are demanding it be done.
“If these hearings by the sub-committee can cause the government to revisit and amend its decision to eliminate the prior label approval service, Canadians and food safety will be well served.”
De Valk said industry speculation is that the pre-approved label requirement could be eliminated by September after a proposed rule is published in summer for public comment.
He said it’s possible that lobbyists have convinced the government that this is largely a regulatory burden and potentially a trade barrier unrelated to food safety.
De Valk disagreed.
“Although some will argue that labelling is not a food safety issue, keeping out food products that do not meet Canadian requirements is a critical component to maintaining food safety,” he told MPs.
“It is no use removing those products once they’ve been consumed in Canada. We need to keep them out before they’re consumed.”
He said existing regulations ensure that poultry products are imported only from plants that meet Canadian hazard analysis critical control point standards.
A CFIA-registered label acts as an assurance for an importer.
“One of the most effective ways that he can ensure himself that particular export meets Canadian requirements is to have a label that is registered by the CFIA,” de Valk said.
“Then he knows that someone in Canada has already looked at it and has said, ‘yes, this meets Canadian requirements.’ “
MPs at the committee hearing did not pursue the implications of ending pre-registered labels, although the issue may be raised when CFIA officials are recalled later in the hearings.
