Canadian farmers who depend on tariff protection from imports will be less secure after the next round of world trade talks are completed in 2001, says agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief.
But he vowed the Canadian government will go to the trade negotiations in 1999 with the intention of keeping tariff protection as high as possible.
“We’re certainly not going in with any thought in mind that we will drop to a particular number,” Vanclief said in an interview. “But everybody in supply management knows that the level of tariff protection is sure to be challenged.”
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He said Canada will look to the European Union for support in its fight against aggressive American challenges to tariff levels.
However, the present level of protection will not be sustained. The debate will be over how quickly they fall.
“The negotiations that will take place are over what is the angle of the slope,” said Vanclief.
The 1996 victory in the North American Free Trade Agreement challenge to Canadian tariffs “bought us time but did not buy us the deal,” he said.
But the agriculture minister said not all supply managed sectors see declining protection levels as the end of the industry.
“I have heard the Ontario chicken board saying that they are preparing if necessary to meet American production head on,” he said. “These are their words, that they are confident that over a period of time, they think they can do that.”
Vanclief met in late July with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture board of directors to promise them that farmers will be consulted extensively as Canada develops its trade position.
The farm leaders said they are interested in having a say on issues other than agriculture on the trade agenda. Some already are uneasy about the implications of negotiations now under way on a new multinational agreement on investment.
The agreement, being negotiated largely in secret, would set worldwide rules requiring governments not to discriminate against foreign investors. It has been described by its critics as a global charter of rights for money.
CFA trade specialist Don Knoerr told the meeting July 25 that while the proposed global agreement would simply extend to other countries the investment provisions Canada already agreed to under the NAFTA, it could affect governments’ ability to limit foreign ownership of land.
That was enough for Barry Cudmore of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture.
The province maintains controls on foreign ownership of farmland, he said: “I’m nervous by what I hear.”
Albertan John Kolk, chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada, didn’t see the problem. “I think that’s a 1970s issue,” he said.
In the end, the board told Knoerr to look further into the land ownership implications of the proposed deal on investment rules.
