OTTAWA – Representatives for Canadian fruit and vegetable growers last week told MPs that protections from unfair import competition should be strengthened.
In particular, Steve Whitney and John Kuhl of the Canadian Horticultural Council told a House of Commons committee that for dealings with the United States, Canada should rewrite its anti-dumping laws to mirror American laws.
It would make the Canadian system more political, less predictable and more cumbersome.
“In the United States, there seems to be a high correlation in trade actions and the federal election cycle,” they told a committee studying Canada’s special import measures act last week. “The Canadian system is much fairer … by providing quicker action at far less cost to either side. The U.S. system drags actions out, which adds cost and lack of predictability for Canadian exporters.”
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Despite this negative description, the horticultural council officials counselled that when dealing with Washington, Canada should act as Washington does.
“Frankly, the Canadian system would be preferable, (but) the reality is that the U.S. is unlikely to change,” they said. “Consequently, Canada should mirror the U.S. system, although the U.S. ultimately will not be happy with this.”
The producer representatives complained Ottawa seems reluctant to toughen Canadian import protections because it is afraid to offend exporters who worry that similar restrictions would be applied to them in foreign markets.
There is a common belief “that action to provide relief on imports of horticultural products into Canada is always weighed against the export interests of other sectors,” the council said in its brief to MPs.
“It is the view of the horticultural sector that rules are rules, be they Canadian or foreign and that the case should be judged on its merits, no more, no less.”
The representatives complained about Canada’s decision in the recently signed free trade deal with Chile to eliminate the ability to apply anti-dumping penalties against Chilean products after six years.
Fruits and vegetables are a major import from Chile into Canada and if the Canadian industry believes those products are being dumped at less than fair prices, the only effective weapon it has is to file an anti-dumping complaint.
The Canadian pursuit of an end to anti-dumping measures in free trade zones is a good theory for economists and a benefit for Canadian exporters who sometimes face politically inspired anti-dumping actions in other countries, they said. It is not good for sensitive Canadian sectors like fruit and vegetable production.
The horticulture industry fears this will be a precedent for other free trade partners more important than Chile.
