As David and Goliath stories go, it doesn’t get much better than 50 or
so Ontario garlic farmers taking on the People’s Republic of China,
with 1.2 billion people or so.
After watching dumped garlic from China swamp their market, depress
their price and drive many farmers out of the business, the Garlic
Growers Association of Ontario decided to fight back.
For six years, it spent thousands of dollars fighting Chinese imports
in front of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal. Earlier this
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year, it won a five-year respite when the CITT and the Canada Customs
and Revenue Agency confirmed duties of $1.82 per pound of garlic
imported from China and Vietnam.
“That protection gives us some time to rebuild our industry,” said
association president Wayne Passmore.
“We were really getting hammered. It is difficult to fight an organized
monster, so I think it has been a significant accomplishment.”
Passmore said the Ontario industry, which produces 80 percent of
Canada’s garlic, is now gearing up for a significant expansion.
Within five years, he expects acreage to expand seven-fold to 3,500.
The previous high was 2,000 acres, but years of depressed prices drove
many farmers to abandon the crop.
Even with the expansion, domestic production will fill just half the
Canadian demand, he said.
As for farmers in other sectors facing what they consider to be unfair
foreign competition, Passmore advises them not to be afraid to use the
available trade protection laws, including the CITT. The rules can work.
Be tenacious, he added, no matter how big the adversary. It took two
tries before the garlic growers won all-year duty protection and they
had to reverse an earlier tribunal decision to offer protection only
during the summer harvest season.
Be prepared for a long and costly fight. The small industry spent six
years in the fight at considerable expense for Ottawa representatives
to argue the case.
Passmore said garlic growers have told Ottawa the government should
consider paying back some of their costs since duties collected on
imports, starting with seasonal duties several years ago, have netted
the government more than $5 million.
“I don’t honestly think we will get any response,” he said.
“The government probably doesn’t like to fund someone fighting the
government.”
