Pulse Canada and the federal government have had some success beating down trade barriers in Asia, but a new market access issue is rearing its ugly head in Europe.
The European Union has served notice it is considering stricter limits for pesticide residue on imported food, said Gordon Bacon, chair of Pulse Canada.
“This is just all part of that move to ensure the consumer in Europe feels confident about the food supply,” he said in an interview shortly after delivering a speech at Pulse Days 2003.
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He warned growers that maximum residue limits, or MRLs, are part of a growing class of non-tariff barriers threatening the Canadian agriculture sector.
“This is a big issue that we’re working on,” said Bacon.
A recent incident in which France rejected a shipment of Ukrainian wheat for containing a banned DDT pesticide shows how serious the Europeans are. The shipment was later found to be DDT free, but the incident set off alarm bells in exporting nations.
“Obviously the French were doing some analysis and came up with a positive, which created an issue. That’s the kind of thing that we’re going to see,” said Bacon.
Recent food scares such as mad cow disease and rising consumer sentiment against genetically modified organisms have made the Europeans more vigilant in imposing tolerance levels on things like heavy metals, micro toxins and pesticide residues.
Bacon said Canada has to keep a watchful eye on the process to make sure the European Union doesn’t impose ridiculous, unscientific regulations.
“You have to make sure that they’re not using some of these food safety concerns as a barrier.”
Bacon said the Europeans are reviewing all pest control products and could well lower residue tolerance limits on some of the pesticides. The target date for introduction of these new tolerance levels is May 2003.
Canada should be taking steps to help defuse this potential threat by working to harmonize pesticide registration criterion with the United States and Europe, said Bacon.
On a more positive note, he said Pulse Canada and the federal government have achieved tariff and tax parity between feed peas and competitive feed ingredients in China and Chile.
In the coming year, Pulse Canada will use feeding trials and information seminars to help convince Korea, Taiwan and Thailand to change their tax and tariff policies, which discriminate against the use of feed peas.
The group is also working with Mexican authorities to expand Canada’s import quota for beans.
