It is premature to conclude Canada will miss the deadline for negotiating an equivalency agreement with the European Union, says a high-ranking EU official.
Many people in the organic community believe it is inevitable the discussions will drag on long past the Dec. 31, 2005, deadline since Canada is so late in making its submission.
But that may not be the case, said Eric Hayes, the EU’s ambassador to Canada.
He has been told the federal government will file its application by the end of October, which should leave adequate time to hash out an agreement.
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“It looks as if we ought to be able to get this sorted out in time, but it depends to a large extent on how things move on the Canadian side,” Hayes told the Western Producer’s editorial board during a stop on a diplomatic trip to Saskatchewan.
Organic producers have been told it takes a minimum of two years to negotiate an equivalency agreement with the EU. But Hayes pointed out the two sides aren’t starting from Square 1. There have already been a number of behind-the-scenes preliminary discussions.
When asked a second time if Canada could still make the deadline, he reiterated his earlier stance.
“I would think so.”
Frederick Kingston, senior adviser of economic and commercial affairs for the EU’s delegation to Canada, put it another way:
“The intent is not to disrupt trade. So if we’re very close to an agreement by the end of December 2005, trade is not going to stop to quibble over a word or two.”
But Kingston quashed Canada’s Plan B proposal to expedite the process by negotiating a one-way deal based solely on Canada shipping product to the EU.
“We do have an interest in shipping organics (to Canada) and we see this as an equivalency deal that would be two-way trade,” he said.
Canada has good reason to want to secure continued access to the European market. The EU consumes an estimated 50 percent of world trade in organic goods but only devotes 3.5 percent of its agricultural land base to organic crops.
Hayes said if an equivalency deal can’t be reached it doesn’t necessarily mean an end to Canadian organic shipments to that key market. Product could still be exported to the EU but it would be sold in conventional markets, which means Canadian growers wouldn’t get any price premiums.
But he doesn’t think it will come to that because a deal will likely happen by the Dec. 31, 2005, deadline.
“Time pressure tends to concentrate minds,” said the ambassador.
Kingston also offered further encouraging words. He understands Canada’s revised national organic standard reflects the principles of Codex Alimentarius, a set of food standards developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
“That presumably carries some weight,” he said.
