OTTAWA (Staff) – The federal government’s promise to announce a new five-year dairy policy by the end of July has run into industry resistance.
The National Dairy Council of Canada, representing the dairy processors, last week insisted a five-year commitment by Aug. 1 would be premature.
A trade panel will announce in August whether protective Canadian dairy tariffs are legal under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
On that decision hangs the future design of Canadian dairy policy, dairy council president Kempton Matte told the Commons agriculture committee May 16.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
No long-term policy
“It’s important to realize that we haven’t had a long-term dairy policy for many years,” he told MPs.
“Our question is ‘why now? Let’s wait and get it right…. If we are going to make commitments for the next five years, let’s see what the rules are.”
The dairy farmer lobby was having none of that argument.
“We need a dairy policy,” said Dairy Farmers of Canada president Claude Rivard.
He said a five-year commitment is necessary to convince farmers they will not lose money because of subsidy cuts. It is important for investment decisions and industry stability that farmers be assured there will be no income impact from a cut in federal subsidy.
“The issue of income loss recovery from the marketplace is fundamental to Dairy Farmers of Canada and has been recognized by the minister of agriculture in his desire to implement a new long-term dairy policy,” Rivard told MPs.
Meanwhile, Matte said studies by the dairy processor lobby have concluded the industry is competitive enough to resist American competition as the border opens.
The higher price of Canadian milk is an issue, he said, but American processors who see an easy market niche in Canada have been told it won’t be that easy.
“The Canadian industry will not roll over and play dead,” Matte told MPs. “No one with kid gloves will greet them at the border.”
Dairy farmers’ witnesses complained Canada has moved far more drastically than competitors in removing dairy industry subsidies.
Three times unlucky
Rivard said even under United States farm bill subsidy reductions, the American level of subsidies will end up at three times the Canadian level.
“It must be well understood that producers have serious difficulty reconciling the government’s messages for moving to freer trade, higher competitiveness, export orientation and its ongoing consideration to withdraw financial support to agricultural industries at a much faster rate than our trade partners,” he told MPs.
