Dairy substitute products have been a highly visible political issue for years, but Ottawa doesn’t know precisely the quantity, value or origin of product coming into the country.
During a House of Commons agriculture committee hearing Feb. 20 on milk protein concentrate imports, government officials were unable to give precise answers about the size of the problem.
Gerry Salembier, a senior trade official from the department of foreign affairs and international trade, said the problem is that milk protein concentrate enters Canada under a tariff line that covers many other products, and imports are not broken down.
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“Exactly what imports are coming in of milk protein concentrate and where they’re coming from is something that is not a simple matter to ascertain,” he told MPs. “We’re doing some work to try and figure out exactly what is coming from where and how much.”
The answer startled Ontario Conservative MP Barry Devolin, who noted that during his two years in Ottawa, the issue has been the subject of debate, farmer demonstrations and now a promise from agriculture minister Chuck Strahl that the imports will be controlled.
“I’m just surprised that the department didn’t do that already, that somebody six months ago or two years ago wouldn’t have said we should actually compile this information so that we know,” he said.
“In retrospect, do you not think it would have been a good idea before now to actually pull this information together so we actually have a sense of the magnitude of the problem we are dealing with?”
Gilles Le Blanc, a senior international trade official with Finance Canada, tried to clarify.
“We’re not saying that we don’t have the information,” he said. “What we’re saying is that we have to dig it up because we don’t have the statistics that you can point to (on MPC imports).”
Still, despite the lack of precise information, Strahl has responded to dairy farmer complaints by promising to go to the World Trade Organization to negotiate a new tariff line that will cap imports based on import levels during the past three years. Dairy Farmers of Canada say a surge in imports last year cost producers more than $100 million.
Agriculture trade negotiator Steve Verheul said Canada will inform the WTO and milk protein concentrate exporters that it plans to act.
The major overseas shippers, including New Zealand, the European Union and Switzerland, will be able to demand compensation for potential market losses.
