Tying up TPP's loose ends an ag industry priority

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

by JIM ALGIE

Canada’s new, Liberal government should have access to the full text by now of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and needs to move quickly on ratification, out-going Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in an interview, Tuesday.

“It is in government right now,” Ritz said of the trade pact text. Full details of the agreement have not yet been made public.

However, a summary was released soon after the agreement was reached in Atlanta earlier this month. It highlighted lower tariffs and the elimination of tariffs on many Canadian agricultural exports as well as increased access to Canadian markets for some currently-controlled farm commodities.

“Foreign Affairs will have a copy; it was at the prime minister’s level,” Ritz said in a telephone interview from his Saskatchewan riding on the day after the surprising defeat of the Conservative government in which he served eight years as agriculture minister. In closing days of the campaign, Ritz’s government offered opposition political parties an opportunity to view the trade agreement’s text, the minister said. The offer came soon after trade ministers of 12 nations, including Canada, announced agreement on the deal after lengthy negotiations.

“Both the Liberals and the NDP declined,” Ritz said of the government’s offer of access. “So they’ll have access to it now and they’ll need to get up to speed on it quickly and get it before Parliament and get it ratified.”

Some media reports have speculated that the election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government means a possible hitch in TPP ratification in Canada.  A report on the website of Nikkei Asian Review, an Asian-based, business magazine, said the Liberal election “casts uncertainty on whether Canada will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership.” It cites earlier comments by Trudeau about trade talks secrecy.  Liberal agriculture critic Mark Eyking could not be reached for comment, Tuesday. However, no agriculture industry observer contacted for this story, Tuesday, expects Trudeau’s Liberals to reject TPP over agricultural trade issues.

Indeed, a statement issued by Trudeau at the time the TPP agreement was announced expressed support for free trade in general and the TPP in particular. The statement also criticized the Conservative government at the time for failing “to be transparent through the entirety of the negotiations” and promised a “full and open public debate on Parliament.”

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, which has strongly supported TPP, has published on its website a series of responses by Liberal Party President Anna Gainey to questions it asked about the party’s platform, including one on TPP.

In a three-paragraph response, Gainey said the party “supports free trade agreement like the TPP because they create jobs for Canadians and contribute to the economic growth and long-term prosperity across the country.”

In interviews, Tuesday, spokesmen for the national cattlemen and hog farmers associations as well as Grain Farmers of Ontario all said they’ll continue lobbying for TPP ratification with the new government.

“I hope when we look forward we don’t undo some of the great work that’s been done already,” GFO chair Mark Brock said in an interview, Tuesday. “I’d hate to see some of that work torn down just because it was done by the Conservative Party,” Brock said.

Canadian Pork Congress chair Rick Bergmann who farms in Manitoba said he has “no concern” that the new government will walk away from TPP. He underlined the importance to Canadian hog farmers and processors to Asian exports, particularly to Japan.

“The fact that these 12 countries have gotten together a very complex deal, they shook hands and were able to come up with a deal tells me there are no hidden doors to be afraid of,” Bergmann said in an interview from Ottawa.

Most concern about TPP has been raised by farm groups involved with Canada’s supply-managed, dairy and poultry commodities over plans for increased access to Canada’s currently, controlled marketplace. An Oct. 5, government communiqué about the TPP said increased access will amount to 3.25 per cent of annual production.

However, a “preliminary analysis” of the impact of TPP on Canadian dairy production by a Guelph-based consulting firm has raised concerns about the possible expansion of imports to Canada of “milk protein substances” that “could actually have a more profound impact on the Canadian dairy industry than that suggested by the apparently benign 3.25 per cent increase in dairy market access.”

The five-page report by researchers Al Mussell, Douglas Hedley and Kamal Karunagoda is available on the website of Agri-Food Economic Systems. The report includes the caveat that “greater information and detail will be required before a fulsome analysis of the implications of TPP can be identified.”

However, it also cites information from U.S., New Zealand and Australian government agencies which indicate Canada will eliminate tariffs on milk protein substances upon entry into force of the TPP. Increased imports of milk protein substances could increase the penetration of imports “much more than 3.25 per cent,” the report says.

Agriculture minister Ritz denied, Tuesday, that the TPP agreement provides for any significant increase of milk protein imports. Negotiators for the U.S., New Zealand and Australia had sought a renegotiation clause on the subject of milk proteins but it’s not part of the text of the agreement, Ritz said.

“For them to be still musing about that, they’re shooting blanks,” he said of U.S., New Zealand and Australian government comments. There are existing arrangements for increased protein concentrate imports under terms of existing WTO and NAFTA agreements but not under TPP, Ritz said.

“That three and a quarter per cent is a finite amount,” he said of the trade opening provided for dairy imports under TPP. “There’s a growth phase-in period of one per cent of that three per cent; but it’s nickels and dimes,” Ritz said.

A Dairy Farmers of Canada spokesperson declined to speak with a reporter about the Agri-Food Economics report or to discuss the future of TPP under the new government. DFC economists are “still reviewing the information that is available,” Sandra Da Silva said by email.

“Before commenting further on the dairy access, we want to ensure we have had the time to review all the information,” Da Silva’s note said. BF