Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz is in the Middle East this week, trying to drum up new sales for Canadian agricultural exporters.
The trade trip, one of many he plans this year, is an illustration of the minister’s new focus on expanded trade as a way to reduce the traditional farm policy focus on safety net programs.
Innovation and trade opportunities are proactive ways to improve farmer income, he said. Paying out safety net dollars is a reactive effort to compensate for past problems.
Last week after a Feb. 9 federal-provincial agriculture ministers’ meeting, Ritz said the answer to income problems in the livestock sector is not more government spending. An aggressive trade strategy is key.
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“As it pertains to livestock, producers continue to be affected by a number of serious pressures and are very dependent on, of course, trade,” he said. “That’s why we’re working hard to open and expand markets worldwide. The ministers here today are united in our resolve to increase Canadian agricultural exports and to level the international playing field for all Canadian producers.”
He said the federal plan is “to visit a number of countries in the coming months to expedite, reopen and reinvigorate trade as well as new markets and continuing markets in Japan, Korea and China.”
The next day, Ritz told the House of Commons agriculture committee that creation of a market access secretariat within Agriculture Canada in January is a direct response to concerns that Canada was lagging in its pursuit of new market-opening trade deals.
The emphasis in recent years had been on striking a World Trade Organization deal. Competitor countries including the United States have been pursuing bilateral trade deals that give their exporters preferential treatment in important markets.
“They were identifying gaps and saying there’s not enough emphasis put on trade,” Ritz told MPs. “There’s not enough emphasis put on agriculture when it comes to the free trade agreements that we are in the process of signing.”
In recent weeks, Ritz has been promoting his focus on trade deals, emphasizing in interviews and speeches that expanded trade is preferable to expanded farm income supports.
Critics of the trade emphasis question whether exports are a real answer to improved producer incomes. The National Farmers Union has noted that while Canadian agricultural exports have quadrupled since North American free trade deals began two decades ago, overall farm incomes have been stagnant.
However, Canada Beef Export Federation chair Gib Drury said the government’s new emphasis is appreciated even if some of the deals announced seem small.
“Following upon the expanded access achieved in Hong Kong in January, we are encouraged that the Canadian government is continuing to focus its efforts on normalizing trade for Canadian beef,” he said in a Feb. 9 statement after a deal was announced with Jordan. “Each market regained helps to facilitate the next. Each market regained offers the Canadian cattle and beef industry the potential to recapture lost value.”
“The secret to Canada’s success is the new market access policy which replaced the all-or-nothing approach and now accepts whatever the importing country is willing and able to offer,” said Drury.
