Canadian agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief predicts chaos, subsidy wars and protectionism if a new round of trade negotiations isn’t launched in Qatar at November’s World Trade Organization meeting.
“If that (a negotiation launch) does not happen, I think we all know that things will get much worse as far as the imbalance of the way agriculture is treated in different nations,” he said in a telephone news conference at the end of a meeting of Cairns Group agriculture ministers in Uruguay Sept. 5.
He also said the lack of agreement to launch an ambitious new trade negotiation will encourage the United States, the European Union and other nations to increase their trade subsidies and protectionism.
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In the past, he said, the U.S. and EU have played tit-for-tat “games” in the subsidy competition.
However, he acknowledged that even as the EU has “backed off a little bit, the United States has gone the other way in order to try to get them.”
The 17-member Cairns group of middle-sized trading nations was formed 15 years ago to fight for freer trade, fewer trade and production-distorting subsidies, and an end to export subsidies.
The group includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa.
Their most recent meeting in the first week of September came on the eve of what they hope will be the launch of a new trade negotiation. They called for a new round that leads to “elimination of all forms of export subsidies, substantial improvement in market access and substantial reduction of domestic support, including the elimination of trade and production-distorting forms of support.”
At a parallel meeting in Uruguay, farm leaders from Cairns countries endorsed their governments’ commitment and urged them to be bold in promoting it.
“The time has come to draw a line in the sand and look to increasing pressure on the Europeans, Americans, Japanese and Koreans for significant progress towards liberalizing agricultural trade,” they said in a communiqué. Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen represented Canada.
One tactic might be to “delay the start of another round of talks until an acceptable negotiating agenda for agriculture is agreed to,” they said.
The farm leaders also urged the governments of Cairns nations to pressure the U.S. Congress to approve trade negotiating legislation before November, giving the administration “fast track” authority to negotiate a complete deal without fear that Congress would later pick it apart.
“This would provide a clear signal to the world that the U.S. is serious about trade reform and is prepared to show leadership on the issue,” they said in their joint statement.
Vanclief said Canada will continue to push the interests of exporters while defending supply management tariff protections.
