The Senate agriculture committee last week urged governments to take a two-pronged approach to helping Canada’s farmers.
Use impending world trade talks to aggressively negotiate a reduction in foreign trade-distorting subsidies and to gain greater and guaranteed access for Canadian products abroad, the committee said in a report issued Aug. 4 in Ottawa.
The next negotiation must gain more trade opportunities for Canadian farmers “if the industry is to survive and prosper.”
Yet internally, Canadian governments also must pony up more money to support farmers, staying within Canada’s trade obligations.
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When the Senate committee traveled to Europe last year, it was “continually struck by the degree to which European consumers support European farmers, financially and in many other ways,” said the Senate report.
“We believe that support is not evident to the same degree in Canada and feel that urban support for rural Canada, particularly for Canadian farmers, must become a priority.”
It said federal and provincial governments must “consider providing enhanced support to the agriculture and agrifood industry in a non-trade-distorting manner and consistent with international trading obligations.”
Following what it sees as the elements of that consensus, the committee said:
- Canadian negotiators should argue for an end to export subsidies and a tighter definition to make sure food aid or other programs are not used as disguised export subsidies.
- Tighter definitions for what are “green” or acceptable domestic subsidy programs should be worked out. Meanwhile, all countries that signed the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade should ensure that the five percent minimum access import promises are respected.
There have been many Canadian complaints that while this country has met its 1994 subsidy and tariff reduction and access commitments, many other countries have found creative ways to get around their commitments.
- So-called “blue box” subsidies that allow governments to shift subsidies from production support to income support should be abolished.
- If there are to be disciplines placed on state trading enterprises such as the Canadian Wheat Board, then the same rules must apply to private commercial traders.
The senators said there is no consensus among farm groups on how to deal with tariff-protected supply management.
Rather than take a direct stand, the committee recommended that Canadian negotiators “vigorously defend the sovereign right to determine domestic marketing systems.”]
