Rural Liberal MPs, feeling the heat from a dairy farmer lobby outraged over government refusal to block imports of cheap butteroil for ice cream making, tried last week to deflect some of the criticism to the Canadian Dairy Commission.
CDC chair Guy Jacob wasn’t about to let that happen.
In the face of dairy complaints that supply management protection rules are not being applied properly to block imports of a butteroil-sugar blend, the government referred the issue to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.
Hearings open in Ottawa April 6. Dairy Farmers of Canada is boycotting the hearings, claiming a political decision is required.
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Skirt the rules
Importers have created a butteroil-sugar blend product to get around import rules. Revenue Canada has ruled the product does not fit under the products protected by supply management tariffs.
At a House of Commons agriculture committee meeting last week, Bloc QuŽbecois MP Odina Des-rochers was the first to raise it.
Will the dairy commission, established as a federal agency to oversee supply management in the dairy sector, be going before the CITT to defend dairy farmers, he asked.
Jacob said no.
“It’s clear this whole issue was a political issue,” he said. “The commission has to remain neutral.”
Some Liberal MPs jumped in to ask why the CDC had not been able to resolve this issue in farmers’ favor, blocking imports of cheap foreign butteroil.
It is not for the CDC, which administers domestic supply management programs but does not deal with imports, the chair replied.
Even the dairy farmer lobby understands that and did not appeal to the CDC for help, he said. “They understand we have to remain neutral on the subject.”
Liberal Larry McCormick wondered if the CDC could not help by encouraging the Canadian dairy industry to provide at competitive prices the butteroil that the ice cream makers want for their cheaper brands.
Jacob said that is not his role. So far, dairy farmers have decided not to lower their prices on butteroil to compete with cheaper imports.
If they decided through the Canadian Milk Management Committee to create a special lower-priced class, “the Canadian Dairy Commission could do that,” he said. “But it is not for us to decide.”
