On the eve of world trade talks and in the throes of another food trade subsidy war, the Liberal government is taking a page from the Conservative government trade strategy of a decade ago.
It is moving the issue of international agricultural subsidies to near the top of the political agenda.
“You will see a number of ministers, and the prime minister, increasingly involved in this issue,” a government trade official said last week. “They recognize it is an important issue in Western Canada and for the country.”
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Prime minister Jean ChrŽtien illustrated the point during the weekend in New Zealand at a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group when he raised the issue of agricultural export subsidies.
Reports from Auckland indicate that ChrŽtien urged other APEC nations, including Japan, to support a move at the next round of World Trade Organization talks to eliminate food export subsidies.
He is reported to have said that a growing subsidy war between the European Union and the United States is devastating the Canadian farm economy.
A week earlier during a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with senior EU leaders, foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy also raised the issue.
Supported by Winnipeg Liberal MP and House of Commons agriculture committee chair John Harvard, Axworthy complained that the EU subsidy cuts have been tepid and export subsidies continue to drive down the prices Canadian farmers receive for their exported produce.
And he insisted that Canada will consider the impending trade talks a success only if there are fundamental reforms to agricultural trade rules and the elimination of export subsidies.
According to a foreign affairs department briefing note, Axworthy also insisted there is a danger that domestic subsidies will start to escalate and there will be backsliding from the agreements on subsidy reduction signed in 1994.
“I urged them to exercise the leadership necessary to ensure that this does not happen,” said Axworthy.
The federal trade official said that during the Liberal caucus meeting in Halifax during the summer, government leaders received a clear message from MPs that farm incomes and the subsidy war are a major political issue that is hurting the Liberals.
The result will be a more concerted effort by four cabinet ministers – Axworthy, trade minister Pierre Pettigrew, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief and Canadian Wheat Board minister Ralph Goodale – and the prime minister to raise the agriculture subsidy issue at every opportunity.
During the last trade war a decade ago, then-Tory finance minister Michael Wilson was involved, making several trips to Europe to meet politicians there to press the point.
“There is no plan yet to involve (finance minister) Paul Martin,” said the trade official.
