Canada’s anti-dumping laws designed to protect Canadian farmers from
unfair, under-priced foreign product that is dumped into the market are
not working and are easily circumvented, a leader of Ontario’s
import-damaged garlic industry has charged.
Warren Ham of Stratford, vice-president of the Garlic Growers
Association of Ontario, said Jan. 18 that the Chinese government is
making a mockery of Canada’s anti-dumping trade protection laws by
finding ways to ship millions of pounds of garlic into the country
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without paying the required duty.
“The garlic industry is small, but this is an issue much bigger than
us,” he said.
“If they can do it to us, they can do it to any sector or any
commodity. We have been pressing the government to enforce the law, but
so far, to no avail.”
Since 1997, stiff anti-dumping duties have applied to Chinese garlic
imported during the last half of the year. They followed investigations
by Customs Canada and hearings by the Canadian International Trade
Tribunal, which both determined Chinese garlic was being dumped and
that Canadian producers were being hurt.
In 2001, the garlic growers succeeded in having the protection extended
to the rest of the year.
But Ham said the volume of cheap Chinese garlic making it into the
country has grown. The imports simply go from China to a third country
and then to Canada.
Suddenly, Pakistan, Indonesia, Czechoslovakia, the United Arab Emirates
and Syria have become garlic exporters to Canada.
“I’m waiting for Greenland to join the list,” Ham said.
“The government is watching this happen and the garlic industry is
taking it on the chin,” he said. “Prices are down, farmers are under
stress and the industry is shrinking.”
He said some scientists are working on a test to determine garlic’s
country of origin, but until that comes, China will continue to get
away with it.
Ham said there are between 70 and 100 growers in Ontario, a third of
what there once was. With approximately 400 acres under cultivation,
the industry has sales of approximately $2.4 million.
“I know that is small potatoes, but the principle applies to the big
sectors as well as to us,” he said.
Ham said it is becoming an issue between Canada and the United States
because 60 percent of the 12 million kilograms exported to Canada
originates in China. Some of it is then re-exported to the U.S., which
effectively gets around the American barrier against Chinese product.
“It is ironic,” Ham said. “Last year, the government collected $4.5
million in duties on garlic, so we are making money for the government
but they still are not protecting us.”
The garlic growers will return to the CITT on Feb. 5 to argue that the
anti-dumping duty on Chinese garlic entering Canada between July 1 and
Dec. 31 should be maintained for the next five years. Without a new
CITT order, the anti-dumping ruling expires this year.
But even if farmers win the battle, as they expect, it will be just a
sideshow to the real issue, Ham said.
“Our real beef is with enforcement,” he said.
“Anti-dump duties don’t matter if you can get around them.”
