Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief offered a rebuttal this
month to U.S. concerns about Canadian hog subsidies.
American senator Chuck Grassley suggested earlier this spring that
subsidies were helping drive expansion of Canadian pork production.
The Republican senator from Iowa was concerned that increasing imports
of hogs from Canada could test the capacity of U.S. slaughter plants
and add to the threat of a price crash in hog markets later this year.
Vanclief sent a letter to Grassley early this month after his
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department investigated whether there are programs in Canada that would
justify the senator’s concerns.
No programs were found that lent credence to the senator’s allegations,
according to a source in Vanclief’s office.
A 1999 Saskatchewan program might have justified the senator’s
suspicions.
It was established to help Saskatchewan hog producers survive the 1998
price collapse. It was a one-time emergency loan program that lent $7.7
million US to 221 applicants during the first six months of 1999.
However, Vanclief’s office said it was a loan program, not a subsidy.
The producers who borrowed the $7.7 million have repaid all but about
$960,000 so far.
Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council, said it
is not the first time Americans have suggested subsidies are spurring
Canadian hog production.
He said the safety nets for Canadian hog producers meet international
trade rules and are “minuscule” compared to U.S. programs.
While Canada’s increasing hog production is attracting attention, Rice
described the increase as modest.
Much of the growth in recent years has been in the production of
weanling hogs for export to the United States. Those hogs will be fed
to slaughter weight in American barns.
According to Statistics Canada, exports of slaughter hogs to the U.S.
in the past three years have stayed almost static.
Senator Grassley did not reply to requests for an interview.
