Canada is committed to no concessions on supply management protections in World Trade Organization talks, which excludes it from discussions about compromises on sensitive product protections, trade minister David Emerson said last week.
But if the other 149 members of the WTO craft a deal that includes reductions in tariff levels that protect supply management, Canada has no option but to sign, he told the House of Commons agriculture committee meeting Feb. 27.
“We intend to give no concessions on supply management,” said Emerson, summoned before the committee because of comments he made in December to the Western Producer about the damage that Canada’s sensitive-sector protection does to export interests in trade negotiations.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“Having said that, I think everyone in this room knows that it is inconceivable at the end of these negotiations if there was a successful (WTO) realm, it is inconceivable Canada would opt out,” he said. “So we have to think about how we give our strong position on supply management, how we ensure that position is preserved at the end of this round of negotiations and when there is no room to engage in discussions, that will be a challenge.”
Emerson’s appearance, supported by agriculture minister Chuck Strahl, was a government effort to assure supply management farmers that despite Emerson’s musings about the need to have a less defensive trade strategy, the Conservative government supports barriers needed to preserve supply management in dairy, poultry and eggs.
It is an important political issue for the election-bound Conservative minority government, particularly in vote-rich rural Ontario and Quebec.
Strahl used his appearance that day and later in the House of Commons and before the Canadian Federation of Agriculture March 1 to reiterate Conservative support, including using WTO rules to negotiate new import restrictions on dairy-displacing milk protein concentrate products.
But the message from the Conservative ministers was mixed.
On industry insistence, they will refuse to budge on negotiating erosion of supply management protections through reduced over-quota tariffs or increased tariff rate quota, or TRQ, guaranteed access. But the rest of the world as represented in WTO membership is prepared to craft a deal that includes tariff reduction and TRQ expansion.
“Canada’s government fully supports supply management,” Strahl told MPs on the committee. “We are standing tall, and sometimes all alone but standing tall in Geneva and elsewhere as we stand up for the (industry).”
Emerson was challenged by opposition MPs about comments he made to the Western Producer that they said indicated he is prepared to sacrifice protected supply managed sectors for greater access for exporters.
Emerson said his comments were blunt but he had no intention of withdrawing them.
“My remarks were candid but they were fundamentally intended to convey that negotiations by their very nature are about give-and-take as Canada seeks to achieve enhanced economic benefits either through the WTO or through regional and bilateral agreement,” he said.
“We will face pressures to make concessions ourselves. That is just common sense and I think we all know that.”
However, until the industry says otherwise, Canada will not compromise despite the analysis that it is effectively allowing others to write the rules.
