Even though borders closed on Canadian beef exports May 21 and a surplus of fat cattle began to accumulate in the Canadian herd, the federal trade department has approved import permits for 11,400 tonnes of beef.
Last week, members of Parliament and some cattle industry officials were wondering why, since there is a surplus in Canada.
“I think this (supplementary imports) has to be so tight and we have to be willing to work with our producers who can match any product from any country, in my opinion,” Ontario Liberal Larry McCormick said June 30. He was speaking at an extraordinary summer meeting of the Commons agriculture committee on the bovine spongiform encephalopathy issue.
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Andrew Moroz, director of the trade policy controls division of the department of foreign affairs and international trade, told MPs that since May 21, there had been processor requests for 15,800 tonnes of imports. More than 3,000 tonnes were turned down and the rest approved.
He said that by the end of June, a total of 52,000 tonnes had been allowed into the country through supplementary permits since Jan. 1. Normally, a year’s total is 65,000 tonnes.
Now, departmental officials are considering applications for more than 1,000 tonnes to be delivered in September.
Critics have questioned why supplementary imports are allowed when Canada is awash in beef.
Government officials note that under rules announced in late May, those who want to import must try to source their request from five Canadian meat plants before they can go overseas for supplies.
Moroz said Canadian plants often cannot supply the meat required for some ethnic or specialty cuts.
In fact, thousands of tonnes of beef have continued to pour into Canada during the six weeks that export borders have been closed.
Because of trade agreements, Canada has no limits on volumes of beef coming in from the United States, Mexico and Chile. Beyond those countries, Canada allows imports of 76,409 tonnes per year as an international trade agreement obligation, much of it from Australia, New Zealand and Nicaragua.
Above that, processors can ask for a “supplementary import” permit and traditionally, these over-quota imports end up almost equalling the beef imported under quota obligations.
