Canada’s grain companies last week told a Parliament Hill committee that the country should make the end of export subsidies a priority in the next round of trade negotiations.
And they suggested the United States, one of the key export subsidizers in the past, could be a key ally.
The U.S. has not used its Export Enhancement Program for several years, United Grain Growers policy development manager Blair Rutter told the Senate agriculture committee April 15.
That should put the pressure on the European Union to do the same, and make the Americans supporters of Canada’s anti- export subsidy position.
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“We do have an ally in getting export subsidies eliminated,” he said.
In a later interview, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool vice-president Marvin Shauf agreed.
“I think the U.S. will be an ally but they will want to keep their own program available until the last gun is laid down,” he said.
During the Senate committee hearing, representatives of UGG, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore said Canada’s trade negotiation goals should include ending or reducing trade-distorting domestic subsidies, putting some fences around use of health or environmental rules as trade barriers and ending use of food aid or export credit sales as a form of export subsidy.
But they agreed the biggest problem is export subsidies. Canadian farmers have lost almost all their subsidy protections while being forced to compete with other farmers still enjoying subsidies.
New Brunswick Liberal senator Ferdinand Robichaud joined others on the committee in noting that on a recent trip to Europe, senators were told the EU will not demolish its subsidy structure.
He predicted the U.S. will support ending export subsidies in theory but will use the European position to justify retaining them in the end.
