CWB changes ease tension | Representative says exporters want lower supply management tariffs
After a 28-year career in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s foreign agricultural service that took him around the world, Scott Reynolds figures he landed in Canada at a good time.
“This assignment is great,” the 56-year-old said.
After assignments in Africa, China and, most recently, Russia, he is finally within driving distance of his family home in Pennsylvania. He can also read newspapers in his native English.
The USDA representative in Canada arrived in Ottawa Sept. 1 after “some of our hardest problems have already been solved and now we’re working on things that are important, but the goal is to eliminate irritants to trade.”
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One of those “hardest problems” in Canada-U.S. relations was the CWB export monopoly, he said in a late-December interview at the U.S. embassy in downtown Ottawa.
“This was something that my predecessors probably talked about and had discussions and briefing papers for more than 30 years,” said Reynolds.
“I was lucky because one month before I arrived, there were changes in the Canadian Wheat Board, and it no longer represents a major problem.”
Next on the list are high Canadian supply management dairy, poultry and egg import tariffs that U.S. exporters would like to see lowered or eliminated.
With World Trade Organization talks stalled, Reynolds said many American exporters are looking to the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations for a breakthrough on lowering supply management tariffs.
“It’s a way that all countries can negotiate some meaningful market access and we’re interested in making progress there,” he said.
The next TPP meeting is in Singapore in March, and Reynolds said the U.S. also has sensitive products on the negotiating table.
“If none of us are willing to make changes, we shouldn’t bother going to Singapore,” he said.
In the background is the issue of Canada’s successful challenge of the U.S. country-of-origin labelling rule, which has stifled livestock exports, and a May 2013 deadline set by the WTO for U.S. implementation.
There is little expectation that the U.S. Congress will pass legislation to comply, and the U.S. embassy in Ottawa will be faced with Canadian pressure to do so. The file will land squarely on Reynolds’ desk.
However, he said a key message he brings to the job is that Canada and the U.S. have a $40 billion cross-border trade in agriculture and food products, and the value of the north-south flow is equal.
“On agriculture we’re tied, and we think that that tie in this case is a great win for both sides,” he said.
“It is extremely important for both of our countries to have reliable export markets.”
Reynolds has already travelled to Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal and plans much more travel to meet Canadian food interests and farmers across the country.
He said the weight of his role has also changed.
The USDA representative in Canada was once responsible for sending information to Washington about Canadian planting and production.
These days, much of that information is available from Canadian government and industry websites.
Instead, the job is increasingly to make U.S. positions on trans-border issues and trade clear to Canadian governments and interest groups.
“I would say the role of representing the United States Department of Agriculture to the government of Canada is taking more of my time compared to figuring out how many acres of wheat were planted in Saskatchewan,” said Reynolds.
“We spend more of our time these days interacting with the government and industry groups here. The world has changed.”
