Canada’s inflexibility on supply management issues during world trade talks reduces the ability of its negotiators to get the best deal possible, says a former negotiator.
Mike Gifford, Canada’s chief agricultural negotiator during the last world trade talks that resulted in a 1993 deal, said supply management inflexibility affected his credibility then and likely is doing the same to his successor Steve Verheul in this World Trade Organization round.
In 1993, Canada was the last country to agree to convert quantitative import quotas into tariffs.
In 2005, Canada is one of only a handful of countries insisting that high over-quota tariffs that protect supply managed industries cannot be reduced at all as part of a tariff reduction deal.
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“In 1993, our insistence on defending (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) article 11 limited our ability to influence others,” Gifford said after a speech at Carleton University Oct. 19.
This time, as the WTO heads to a pivotal meeting of ministers in Hong Kong in six weeks, Canada continues to pursue the view that over-quota tariffs cannot be cut. That is despite proposals from the European Union, the United States and developing countries that all tariffs must be cut as part of a market access deal.
Gifford said Canada’s position will not win the day.
