The new president of a national lobby group for agricultural trade
liberalization says food exporters do not want to win their fight at
the expense of sectors that want to keep protective tariffs.
“We’re not out to hurt or destroy any other sector of Canadian
agriculture,” said Claresholm, Alta., farmer Ted Menzies, president of
the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, or CAFTA.
“We’re just out to make sure that the interests of export-oriented
sectors are represented. There has been too much antagonism in Canadian
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agriculture, one sector squaring off against another.”
Menzies hopes Canadian negotiators at World Trade Organization talks
can represent both Canadian interests.
But later he had little sympathy for arguments made for continued
protection of Canada’s dairy, poultry and egg sectors.
“We look at what sectors we want to protect and ask, is it fair to
developing countries not to have better access to larger population and
higher value markets like ours? It is a difficult position to defend,
saying ‘we want access to other markets for our products but by the
way, don’t expect us to change domestic policy to give you better
access to ours.’ I don’t envy our negotiators.”
Menzies, a former president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers
Association, has been picked to replace Ontario soybean grower Liam
McCreary as president of CAFTA. He operates a 5,000-acre farm south of
Calgary and will be a member of the federal trade advisory committee.
Saskatchewan cattle producer and Canadian Cattlemen’s Association
president Neil Jahnke is the new vice-president of the group.
Early in 2003, CAFTA will open its first Ottawa office staffed by new
executive director Patty Townsend, a former Ottawa lobbyist for Prairie
Pools Inc. and then Agricore. She currently is executive director of
the Agriculture Institute of Canada.
Menzies said his main job as CAFTA president will be to pressure the
federal government to stick to its trade agenda of pressing for more
open borders, an end to export subsidies in all their forms, and a
sharp reduction in domestic subsidies.
He said one of his main points will be reminding the government that
CAFTA represents farmers in sectors that make up 70 percent of Canadian
agriculture.
Menzies has been at several meetings of farm leaders from Cairns Group
countries but has just one WTO experience – the disastrous Seattle
meeting in 1999.
He said it showed him how complex the WTO process is. It also gave him
hope.
“I saw a lot of commonality there between countries and that makes me
believe a deal can be made that helps everyone.”
