Canola growers and oilseed crushers have asked western provincial
governments to join a legal fight to force Quebec to allow coloured
margarine on its store shelves.
“It is a trade barrier to protect their dairy industry, that’s for
sure,” said Ross Ravelli, a Dawson Creek, B.C., producer and president
of the Canadian Canola Growers Association. “I can’t say it’s costing
us that much, but it is the thin edge of the wedge and we need to fight
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trade barriers where we find them.”
On Aug. 26, Canadian Oilseed Processors’ Association president Bob
Broeska said western provinces had said they will intervene.
“That will help build the case.”
At issue is a Quebec regulation that margarine sold in the province
cannot be coloured yellow to make it look like butter. It must be lard
white.
Under the terms of a 1994 agreement on internal trade, all provinces
agreed that was a trade barrier and promised to end margarine-colouring
restrictions by 1997.
Only Quebec has failed to do so, under pressure from its powerful dairy
industry. In early 1998, it seized coloured margarine imported by
Unilever Canada from the United States and the company is now suing the
province for seizing the product.
In August, Ontario took the dispute to a trade disputes resolution
panel.
The industry estimates that loss of Quebec market share costs oilseed
crushers and growers $17 million in sales a year, two-thirds of it in
the West.
It’s why industry leaders want western provinces in the fight against
what they see as Quebec protectionism.
Ravelli said the economic impact is small to the multibillion-dollar
canola industry.
“But the principle is important. What would come next?”
Broeska said the Quebec barrier also undermines Canada’s liberalized
trade positions within North America and the World Trade Organization.
“It hurts our credibility in calling for freer trade when we can’t even
clean up our own back yard.”
The issue goes before a disputes panel in November with a decision
expected in early 2003.
The politics of the margarine-butter fight have a long and colourful
history in Canada, going back almost to the country’s roots.
As early as 1886, the dairy lobby convinced Sir John A. Macdonald’s
Conservative government to ban the product – at first a combination of
beef tallow and skim milk. Except for a few years around the First
World War, the ban was in place until 1948.
Illegal import of margarine from Newfoundland was an issue between
Canada and the British colony before it joined Canada in 1949.
