Just weeks ahead of a make-or-break World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Geneva, the federal government has signalled a retreat from its promise that it would not agree to cuts on tariffs applied to imported products that exceed certain quantity limits.
Agriculture minister Chuck Strahl surprised and in some cases infuriated supply management leaders last week by indicating Canada’s rigid position on supply management cannot hold.
He said at a recent Geneva meeting Canada stood alone in opposing a suggestion from the chair of the agriculture negotiations that a WTO deal should include more competition for supply management.
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“When we stand up and defend supply management at the Doha round and we get outvoted 148 to 1, that position is not sustainable,” Strahl said.
“We’ve made the point. We’ve gone to the wall for supply management. But what I say to both sides is there is no use taking an extreme position, standing outside the room pointing at a closed door saying, ‘behind that door, I told them, boy, I gave them a piece of my mind.’ We have to be inside that room to get the best deal we can for Canadian farmers.”
Strahl said those who urge Canada to walk away if it has to make compromises “are not dealing in reality. We simply are going to be in the WTO when this is over.”
Strahl’s comments followed pleas from western premiers and agriculture ministers that Canada be less rigid in WTO talks on supply management defence or risk hurting the interests of western exporters.
In a May 31 interview from Regina, Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman said, “we are traders in this part of Canada. We value supply management but when we put together our position for the Hong Kong (WTO) meeting, it was clear we didn’t want to sacrifice one sector for the interests of another. We saw that happening.”
Wartman said the West wants supply management to be willing to give up “a fraction” of its protective tariffs so that other sectors also could benefit.
“Dairy is not as broken as some of our export sectors are,” he said.
Meanwhile, supply management leaders suggested Strahl is misrepresenting what is happening in
Geneva.
Mike Dungate, general manager of Chicken Farmers of Canada, an industry protected by high tariffs, said he was taken aback.
There was no formal vote, most countries in the room don’t have an interest in the over-quota tariff debate and Canada does have allies among countries with their own sensitive products, he said.
“You can’t say we are completely isolated and I don’t think the minister’s representation of 148 to 1 was a fair representation,” said Dungate. “Canada has made its statement and the chair now knows we have an issue. This is no time to retreat.”
He said proposals in Geneva suggest that over-quota tariffs could be cut between 15 and 25 percent and while that still would leave many over-quota tariffs at between 100 percent and 250 percent, “with those levels of cuts we would be in trouble. Product would be coming in.”
Dungate said if the minister is abandoning the “no cuts” position, he should tell the industry directly: “He has not.”
Liam McCreery, president of the trade liberalization lobby Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, said it is a good signal. CAFTA leaders met Strahl June 1 to complain that Canada had isolated itself in Geneva.
“If the government has said it will start to get engaged again, that is good for all Canadian farmers,” he said. “You can’t protect anyone if you are not in the room.”
In Parliament, the Bloc Québecois jumped on it as another federal sellout of Quebec interests.
In answer to his supply management critics, Strahl recalled predictions of doom after the Liberal government accepted a compromise in the last world trade negotiation in 1993 that changed supply management protection to tariffs from quota limits.
“Looking back, the industry has had 13 good years since, very good years,” he said.
“The scare mongering from the industry just didn’t develop.”
