OTTAWA — The federal government is being pressed by a coalition of beef processors to open up its borders to more offshore manufacturing beef.
Under current rules, offshore imports are limited to 72,021 tonnes before a 25 percent tariff is imposed.
Next year, under new international trade rules, the limit increases slightly to 76,000 tonnes.
With more than 58,000 tonnes already in by late April, the importers who usually mix frozen boneless Australian and New Zealand with Canadian beef to make restaurant beef products, predict the high tariff will take effect by mid-May this year.
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Late last week, representatives of 40 meat processors that claim to represent $5 billion in sales and more than 40,000 employees in Eastern and Western Canada, met officials from agriculture, finance and foreign affairs departments to argue that the cap should be lifted.
The meeting was “inconclusive” they reported afterwards.
They argue that a 25 percent duty to take effect against Oceanic beef will increase the price of their meat products and open up the Canadian market to cheaper U.S. imports. The Canadian companies would lose sales and be forced to reduce staff, said the group.
“(These are) Canadian jobs that could be lost through government action,” Canadian Meat Importers Committee chair Bill Fenton said in a statement after the meeting.
Dual pressures
But the government is caught between competing lobby pressures.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and processors that do not import offshore product want to keep import levels where they are to protect themselves from excessive competition.
Scott Zies, of Mississauga-based Cardinal Meat Specialists Ltd., said the importers’ campaign is not aimed to hurt cattle producers.
Since American and Canadian prices for imports are roughly equal now, it simply means that many Canadian meat processors are being penalized and will not be able to compete with American imports, he said in an April 25 interview.
“I’m of the opinion that there is now no threat of injury,” he said. “We’re not taking this position against cattlemen. We are merely defending our own interests.”
