A food trade war could be looming at the Canada-United States border
and it has nothing to do with grain.
Canada is trying to talk the United States out of imposing new
paperwork that a critic says could snarl Canadian food exports.
Canadian agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief has gone so far as to
threaten equivalent retaliation if the measures go through the U.S.
Congress as proposed.
He made the point April 10 in Washington, D.C., during a meeting with
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“I also reminded him in a friendly sort of way, but a sincere sort of
way, that if one country was to put in that kind of regulation, the
other one, in the name of equivalency, would have to do it the other
way,” Vanclief said April 15 in Ottawa. “I think they got the point.”
At issue are bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, the
two arms of U.S. Congress, that would require prior notification at the
border of an approaching food shipment. One bill suggests four hours
notice, the other 24 hours.
The difference would be worked out in negotiation between the two
Houses of Congress. The bills are part of the American anti-terrorism
legislative avalanche.
Canadian Alliance MP Rick Casson said the American restrictions would
be a catastrophe that would cripple Canadian exports.
“The bill would severely affect our exports at the border, all under
the guise of safety from agri-terrorism,” he said in the House of
Commons. “This would activate any number of random inspections,
preventing our products from getting to the American market. This
action is nothing short of protectionism.”
Vanclief said he takes the threat seriously.
He has asked that the Americans, if they must put something on the law
books, to make it a regulation that could be changed to exempt
countries with equivalent food safety and inspection standards such as
Canada.
“What I was saying to the deputy secretary of health was since we have
virtual equivalency on food safety between our two countries … so we
can keep the free flow of goods … why would be need another 9,000 or
10,000 pieces of paper a day to say we are going to be at the Detroit
border at 12:05 tomorrow with a truckload of food products?” asked the
minister.
Vanclief said between 9,000 and 10,000 shipments of food products cross
the border each day.
The problem for the food exporting industry with such a scheme is that
border inspectors could make a point of checking trucks to make sure
unreported shipments were not getting through.
There also would be random checks to make sure the information given in
the pre-notification was accurate.
The agriculture minister had hoped to meet the secretary of health in
the American cabinet to make his point. Instead, he was offered the
deputy secretary.
But Vanclief said the message was received about the potential danger
of legislation, including a tit-for-tat war of inspection.
He raised the issue at the beginning of the meeting.
Allen chose to close the meeting by assuring the visiting Canadian that
he would follow up on the issue.
