RED DEER, Alta. – Even as Canada and the United States were announcing progress in their negotiations on cross-border agricultural trade irritants, a senior Canadian grain industry official was warning Canadian officials not to fall into a U.S. trap.
“I think we have to realize where the Americans are trying to take us,” Gordon Cummings, chief executive officer of Agricore, said during a trade conference Nov. 13.
“They are trying to take us into a bilateral negotiation where in the end we will concede something, like limiting the amount of grain going to the United States, in order to receive from them something we already should have under (trade agreements), which is free access.”
Read Also
Saskatchewan, Manitoba sign Arctic Gateway deal
Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Arctic Gateway Group have signed an MOU to strengthen trade through the Port of Churchill.
At the conference, federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said by Christmas, Canada and the U.S. will announce some early agreements from the talks.
Last week, he met with senior U.S. Department of Agriculture official Gus Schumacher and both reported progress.
But Vanclief told the conference Canada will not accept any restrictions on trade. “Canada will not agree to limitations on exports to the United States.”
Still, the Agricore CEO said the Americans have an agenda that should make Canada wary.
Cummings was commenting after speaking to a Canada and Alberta-sponsored trade conference.
He had been asked by Canadian Wheat Board official Tami Reynolds about Canada’s agreement to hold agricultural grievance talks with the U.S. after northern plains state governors in September began to block and inspect Canadian grain and meat shipments south.
Canada protested that the state re-inspection broke the rules of the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement and yet agreed to meet the Americans to try to deal with their complaints and end trade disruptions.
“So when do you think we Canadians are going to stand up and say ‘enough is enough. There are the rules. Live with them’,” Reynolds said.
Cummings said Canada should not let the Americans separate it from multilateral agreements and extract concessions before the next round of global trade talks begin.
Instead, Canada should fight at the World Trade Organization for rules which have substantial and prompt penalties attached for violations.
Later, Cummings said Canada had little option but to talk with the Americans. He congratulated Vanclief for getting Canadian goods moving south again.
