The Canadian Senate agriculture committee took the unprecedented step last week of intervening in an American regulatory proposal and demanding that import restrictions not be imposed against a Canadian semi-processed sugar beet product.
In a letter to a senior bureaucrat in the United States Department of Agriculture thta is considering a tariff against thick beet juice, the Senate committee said such an action would violate the spirit of trade rules and devastate an agricultural sector of southern Alberta.
“The proposal to change the rules would effectively eliminate Canadian exports,” said a letter to Washington from the committee signed by chair and Liberal senator Joyce Fairbairn, who comes from the sugar beet producing area of southeastern Alberta.
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The Rogers Sugar plant in Taber, Alta., has exported up to 30 percent of production in the past three years as thick juice, said the committee letter.
“Losing the ability to export could mean the closure of the plant, leaving the 250 beet producers without their main market. In other words, this could be the end of sugar beet production in southern Alberta.”
The Senate committee letter, written after public hearings with the industry, suggested implementation of American proposals to include thick juice under restrictive U.S. sugar import rules after several years of free access “is certainly in violation of the spirit of our trading relationship and also raises questions related to its compliance with the United States’ obligations under the WTO (World Trade Organization) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).”
Thick juice is an intermediary product in converting sugar beet juice into refined sugar. It has been given free access into the American market because it provides refining jobs in the U.S.
The committee letter also noted that after Hurricane Katrina hammered the southern U.S. sugar cane production area in 2005, the Americans needed sugar and opened up the import quota for one of their most protected sectors.
“This is further evidence that Canada plays an important role in ensuring the security of the U.S. food supply.”
Fairbairn said, “having heard the evidence, we certainly are operating with a sense of urgency. We as a committee learned from the BSE experience when we did not directly intervene to support the government’s efforts to support and defend our industry. This time, we recognize the support our government is giving to these producers and we are determined to issue our own support.”
Fairbairn said it is “too early to tell” if a change in control of Congress from Republicans to Democrats last week will reduce the threat to the southern Alberta sugar beet industry.
