What a year it has been for agriculture in Ottawa.
As I write this, the U.S. Senate has just voted to repeal country-of-origin labelling, effectively ending a protracted trade dispute over meat labels. President Barack Obama was expected to sign the bill Dec. 18.
The repeal comes as Canadian and Mexican officials were set to receive authorization from the World Trade Organization to impose US$1.01 billion in retaliatory tariffs against the Americans because of COOL.
Somewhere, prime minster Justin Trudeau is breathing a sigh of relief. The U.S. repeal of COOL means he has narrowly avoided a potential trade war with Canada’s largest trading partner.
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With Trudeau set to attend a White House state dinner in his honour in March, the first time such an invitation has been extended to a Canadian prime minister since 1997, a trade war is likely the last thing he wanted.
However, the end of COOL isn’t the only significant agriculture issue to come to a head this year.
The fate of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership remains up in the air. Still, the conclusion of the years-long negotiations this fall should not be diminished.
Canada’s export dependent agriculture industries have insisted TPP is essential to their sectors. Beef, pork and canola producers see the pending, multibillion-trade deal as a way to regain prominence in Asian markets, where several of their competitors (Australia, for example) have landed free trade deals.
And while TPP forces Canada’s supply managed sectors to make concessions, the consensus among many dairy, egg, and poultry farmers is that the outcome could have been much worse.
However, while the text may have been finalized, much work remains. American presidential primaries loom and the Liberals are promising full consultations on the deal, including a full debate in Parliament. As a result, expect TPP to surface again in the new year.
The same goes with the debate around the future of Canada’s supply management sector, which is likely to slip its way into TPP-related conversations.
The future of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union is also still up in the air as discontent in Europe over non-agriculture chapters continue, notably intellectual property.
This past year also marked the end of the Canadian Wheat Board, now known as G3 Canada Ltd. While the Conservatives had eliminated the board’s marketing monopoly in 2012, its sale by the federal government marks the end of a significant chapter in Canada’s agriculture history.
Ripple effects of the board’s sale remain.
The federal government will have to decide in the new year whether it will get involved in the attempt to sell the Port of Churchill and the accompanying railway. The port’s current owner, Omnitrax, has put the operation up for sale, and has blamed declining grain shipments to Canada’s northernmost deep sea port.
Churchill isn’t the only transportation issue the federal government will have to deal with in 2016. Canada’s grain logistic system ran relatively smoothly in 2015, thanks to a smaller crop and slumping potash and oil markets, but the federally ordered review of the Canadian grain handling system continued.
Review chair David Emerson is required to submit his final report and recommendations Dec. 24, which means the issue is expected to come off the political backburner in the new year when transportation minister Marc Garneau tables the report in Parliament in February or early March.
Weather was also a concern in 2015. Drought conditions on the Prairies for much of the summer and too much moisture in Ontario helped questions about the effectiveness of Canada’s suite of business risk management programs resurface.
The Liberals have promised to review those programs during Growing Forward 3 talks, which are set to begin in 2016. Expect conversations around climate change and the adaptability of Canada’s agricultural sector to surface, particularly given the recent agreement in Paris.
