Canadian potato growers remain under the watchful eyes of their American counterparts.
There are rumblings south of the border that subsidies and trade restrictions are giving an edge to growers and processors in Western Canada. Part of the concern is based on expansion of Alberta’s potato industry.
It was hoped that the potato industries in Canada and the United States could resolve any trade concerns amicably. They were encouraged last year to pinpoint trade irritants and to recommend ways to resolve them.
However, potato growers in states such as North Dakota, Minnesota and Idaho see themselves losing market share in the U.S. due to Canadian imports. They are lobbying all the way up to Congress for legislated tools to help protect their market share.
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“The issue this year seems to be geared towards low-cost frozen products coming into the western states,” said Jerry Hill, Washington, D.C. adviser to the National Potato Council. “We have a lot of complaints, particularly from Idaho.”
The national council helps represent the interests of American potato growers. The council sees some merit in discussing trade irritants with Canada’s potato industry.
But Hill said they are not putting all of their potatoes in one basket.
“There’s always a willingness to continue meeting. We just don’t have a great deal of expectation.”
Two years ago, Canada’s potato exporters were cleared of unfair trading charges leveled by American growers. A U.S. International Trade Commission report said both countries offered some level of support to their potato growers.
The report said Canadian programs were not so rich that they offered an unfair advantage. And Canadian export volumes were not so great that they distorted the American market.
In an interview last week, Mike Gifford, director of trade policy for Agriculture Canada, said the export of Canadian potato products in the U.S. has increased more than five-fold since 1992. But that has been offset, said Gifford, by an expanded overseas market for American potato products.
“Their industry is growing as fast as ours, but most of their growth is for offshore markets.”
Some of the trade tension may be alleviated by a recovery in the Asian economy. That would syphon off more of the potato products grown in North America.
However, there is some concern in Canada that potatoes could follow the path of beef and grain, where American producers have used blockades and court action to slow the flow of Canadian product into the U.S.
There appears to be grounds for those concerns. Hill said the National Potato Council wants potatoes included on what he refers to as the retaliation list.
The list is made up of Canadian products that the U.S. could target if unhappy with the outcome of a long-standing battle over American magazines sold in Canada. At the centre of the controversy are split-run editions that attract Canadian advertising dollars but lack Canadian stories.
