GUELPH, Ont. – During upcoming world trade talks, Canadian negotiators should not count on the European Union as an ally when defending supply-management tariffs or such organizations as the Canadian Wheat Board.
Stefan Tangermann, an economics professor from the University of Gottingen in Germany, said Jan. 29 that European negotiators may carry some surprises to the next round of world trade negotiations.
Traditionally, Canada has figured on EU support for orderly marketing or in defending state trading entities against American attack, because of the structure of Europe’s agriculture industry and policy framework.
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“I agree that fundamentally, Europe is much more along the lines of Canadian thinking on these issues than is the United States,” Tangermann said.
“But this time, that may be less so. There could be some surprises.”
Europeans may be more trade liberalizing than the rest of the world expects.
Price predictions
He told a trade seminar, organized by the University of Guelph and broadcast to sites across Canada, that if domestic policy reforms are successful inside the EU this year, European dairy supports and prices will fall.
“That would substantially reduce Europe’s interest in defending high tariff protection and would allow Europe to support tariff cuts,” Tangermann said in an interview after his speech.
“If that happened and if Canada wants to fight for high tariff protection, it would leave Canada alone in the cold on this issue.”
Similarly, he said Canadians may be surprised if they expect European support in their defence of state trading entities such as the Canadian Wheat Board.
Tangermann said the EU has an interest in the issue only if its own agricultural intervention agencies are considered state trading entities. It has been arguing before the WTO that they do not fit the definition.
