Trade will rise to the top of the government’s agricultural agenda in the new year, according to federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief.
In early January, he travels to Washington, D.C. for his first face-to-face meeting with American agriculture secretary Dan Glickman.
Through the year, there will be continuing trade disputes with the United States, including the defence of Canada’s dairy export pricing policy, which has been challenged by the Americans.
And increasingly, the government will be thinking about the bargaining position Canada will take to the 1999 beginning of the next round of world trade talks.
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In a year-end interview, the minister said he does not expect any domestic policy or program surprises from government decisions in 1998. “I don’t foresee that we are coming forward with any major legislative initiatives.”
Income protection debate
But he acknowledged there will be continuing pressure for better farm safety nets, perhaps with higher funding levels, as a safety net committee debates the design of the next farm income protection program to be in place in 1999.
And there could be lingering concerns about the effect of higher interest rates if they follow the upward trend that some economists predict.
“People are going to be conscious of that and if interest rates climb a bit more, it is bound to have an effect,” he said. “But I don’t think it will go to the stage where it’s going to affect us to a great extent.”
Trade issues will be a continuing presence.
“Trade issues will always be a high agenda item,” Vanclief said.
And relations with the United States will continue to be the most important file on the trade side.
With 1998 as a congressional election year, there is a good chance trade with Canada will become an issue in some congressional races.
“I suppose just about every year in the U.S. is an election of some kind and there always will be some politicians who think an easy way to get elected is to kick Canada around,” he said.
But when he meets Glickman, the talk will be more positive.
“We have talked in the past and we both said it is important we don’t do things for political reasons,” said Vanclief. “We both are each other’s best customer. There will be issues from time to time but I think our goal is to continue trade on a rules-based system.”
He said both governments should agree to accentuate the positive in Canada-U.S. agriculture trade. He mentioned the Northwest Pilot Project of freer cattle movement across the Alberta-Montana border as an example.
