On Jan. 22 a gaggle of senators boarded an airplane in Ottawa to fly to Europe, which they consider a haven of agricultural subsidies that hurt Canadian farmers.
During their sortie behind enemy lines, the senators hope to gather some intelligence and maybe even get off a shot or two of their own.
“I think there’s no question we have to wake up in Canada about the size and impact of those subsidies,” Senate agriculture committee chair Len Gustafson said in a interview from his southern Saskatchewan farm.
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“I think we will get enough information to come back here and tell our government they have to wake up.”
Fear concessions
He said there is a danger Canadian negotiators in the next World Trade Organization talks will make more concessions on Canadian programs to try to win policy and subsidy deals from others.
“I just think we can’t afford to give away anything else before the other people cut their own programs,” said Gustafson. “Our farmers are being hurt by these foreign subsidies. I’m not sure our government understands how much.”
As many as eight senators from the committee are expected to make the trip to Europe for meetings in London, Paris and Brussels.
They leave Jan. 22 and return “in early February, not that long,” said the Conservative senator.
He said the Canadians also will be “lobbying” the Europeans politicians and bureaucrats to reduce their domestic and export subsidies because of the impact they have on countries like Canada, which has eliminated many of its farm subsidies since the last world trade agreement took effect in 1995.
“They have to know that what they are doing is hurting others,” he said in an earlier interview.
