Canada’s supply management agencies turned up the pressure on the Conservative government last week.
They are demanding it fulfill its promise to refuse to accept international trade talk results that undermine supply management tariff protections, no matter what the consequences.
That would mean refusing to accept a World Trade Organization deal that reduces overquota tariffs or increases the tariff rate quota volume of low tariff imports that can come into Canada’s dairy, chicken and egg markets.
“The message to the minister and the prime minister is that we appreciate their refusal to negotiate on proposals that would undermine our system, as well as other actions they have taken to strengthen and protect our system,” said Chicken Farmers of Canada chair David Fuller.
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“But in the end, they will be judged by the results of the negotiation, not by the stance they took during it.”
The Conservatives have worked hard, and have been praised by affected farmers, to support the protected marketing system that carries political clout in rural Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
“They must come back with an agreement that works for all Canadian agriculture and that includes us,” Fuller said. “That is how they will be judged.”
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said the mere threat that Canada would refuse to sign a “bad deal” should be enough to convince other countries to soften their positions.
The SM5 of marketing boards – dairy, chicken, turkey, egg and hatching egg sectors – said in a recent open letter to prime minister Stephen Harper that the government has promised to defend supply management protections and it must support that with a willingness to reject any deal that erodes them.
“Although you and members of your government continue to reiterate on all public platforms that this government delivers on its commitments, your commitment to supply management is often questioned both domestically and internationally by those who believe that Canada will sign a WTO agreement when a deal is generally agreeable to most other WTO members,” the letter said.
“Such distrust is often fuelled by the dichotomy that exists between the government’s domestic actions and the progress portrayed in the negotiations in Geneva.”
In early February, chief agricultural negotiator Steve Verheul said the decision on whether to sign a deal that undermined supply management but benefited the broader economy would be one for politicians, but he doubted the government would refuse to sign.
Emerson has signaled exactly that.
A year ago he told the House of Commons agriculture committee that Canada would continue to refuse to compromise in WTO talks on proposals to reduce supply management protections.
But if Canada cannot persuade the other 151 WTO countries to change their position on sensitive product tariff cuts, Canada would not walk away, he added.
“At the end of these negotiations, if there was a successful (WTO) realm, it is inconceivable Canada would opt out,” he said.
