Miike Gifford, who has retired as Canada’s chief trade
negotiator on agriculture issues, is warning that supply management threatens to scupper huge opportunities
for Canadian exporters.
Writing for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, he says if
Canada insists on retaining supply management protection for dairy and poultry
farmers, it could keep Canada out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations
and if Japan joins the TPP, Canada would lose “enormous trade opportunities.”
He also says Canada stands to lose grain and meat markets if
Australia and China reach a free-trade deal.
Gifford says international negotiations over agricultural market
access will be difficult, but "having said that, there would likely be serious
consequences for the rest of the economy not to mention the 80 per cent of
Canadian agriculture that is tied to world prices if Canada were to be
prevented from joining the TPP because of a reluctance to open up the dairy and
poultry sectors," Gifford wrote in his report.
"The consequences for Canadian agriculture would be
especially adverse if the outcome of the TPP negotiations was an agreement that
included Japan but not Canada."
Canada has opened free trade talks with Japan and Thailand.
The report suggests that Canada and other countries that have
agricultural protections will have to at least partially liberalize their
systems in order to come to an agreement on these free-trade agreements. While
Canada has its supply management system, Japan protects its rice, and the
United States its sugar and dairy sectors.
Council president John Manley, a former Liberal cabinet
minister, challenged the NDP MPPs from Quebec to consider their choices..
"If you're on the left of the political spectrum, why would
you want to favour 13,000 dairy farmers over low-income Canadians that need
milk, butter, eggs and cheese and chicken to feed their families? Explain that
me," Manley said in an interview.
"That's a political calculation that nobody's done because
nobody's made the effort to communicate to Canadians what the benefit is.
