Canadian food producers feel confident as Trump kicks off revisions to NAFTA
Canadian farmers could be in the crosshairs as U.S. President Donald Trump moves ahead with his campaign promise to renegotiate the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, but industry leaders say they are well prepared to defend Canadian agriculture and their own economic interests.
The United States gave formal notice Thursday of its intent to revamp the pact, triggering a 90day consultation window before formal talks can begin. It is unclear exactly which aspects of the agreement will be renegotiated or what the U.S. may be hoping to add or change — however, agriculture will likely feature prominently. In April, Trump specifically rebuked Canada for what he called its “unfair” dairy rules, leading some people to suggest that this country’s system of supply management for the production of milk, cheese, butter and yogurt could be a target.
Sylvain Charlebois, professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, said dairy farmers have reason to be concerned. Though Charlebois himself has been a critic of Canadian supply management — calling it an overly protectionist system that inhibits innovation in the dairy sector — he said it will be bad news if Canada is forced to make changes because of pressure from a trading partner.
“What I’m most concerned about is that we could be forced to make changes under someone else’s terms. And that’s not desirable,” Charlebois said. “We should have actually figured this one out ourselves long ago.”
Albert Kamps — who has a dairy farm near Lacombe and is a past-chair of Alberta Milk, the organization that represents the province’s 521 dairy farmers — said he believes Canada will successfully stand up for supply management in the upcoming talks.
“Canada has negotiated free trade agreements with several dozen countries — look at CETA (the Canada-EU trade deal) and other trade agreements we’ve made — and supply management has remained intact,” Kamps said. “We have complete confidence in the Canadian government that they will continue to defend dairy farmers.”
On the beef front, representatives from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association have already appeared before the Standing Committee on International Trade in Ottawa to discuss preserving market access for Canadian beef in the event of NAFTA renegotiations. The U.S. is Canada’s top export market, accounting for 70 per cent of Canadian beef exports and nearly all our live cattle exports. In 2016, Canada exported 270,000 tonnes of beef and 764,000 head of live cattle to the U.S. valued at more than $3 billion.
John Masswohl, director of government and international relations with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said NAFTA’s ability to provide market access without tariffs or quotas for either beef or live cattle has been very effective for North American beef producers. He said his organization strongly supports keeping NAFTA’s provisions on beef trade intact.
“We acknowledge that there are other sectors and other areas of the economy that could probably benefit from either creating new rules or improving them. So we’re not saying, ‘don’t renegotiate NAFTA,’” Masswohl said.
“But what we are saying is, we like NAFTA — it’s been very successful for beef producers.”
The U.S. ranchers’ lobby group R-CALF has called on the Trump administration to use the upcoming NAFTA talks as a way to reinstate country-of-origin labelling, the U.S. law that was a thorn in the side of Canadian cattle and hog producers for years and was finally repealed in December 2015. Masswohl said any resurrection of that legislation — which was ruled a violation of international trade laws by the World Trade Organization — would be unacceptable.
The Trump administration has also taken aim at the Canadian softwood lumber industry, with its recent announcement of the imposition of tariffs ranging from 19 per cent to 24 per cent on Alberta lumber imported into the American market. However, Brock Mulligan — spokesperson for the Alberta Forest Products Association — said that since softwood falls outside the existing parameters of NAFTA, it is unlikely that specific trade dispute will be part of upcoming negotiations.
In an emailed statement, Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous said the provincial government is closely following developments in Washington and is committed to doing what it can to promote the two-way benefits of the Alberta-U.S. relationship.