Bill to protect supply management passes, exporters disappointed

Glacier FarmMedia — Bill C-202 sailed through the Canadian Senate last week with hardly a ripple, even though farm organizations had asked for proper scrutiny.

Instead, the Bloc Quebecois amendments to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act, which asks for supply management to be off the table in future trade negotiations, awaits Royal Assent. Parliament has recessed for the summer and returns in mid-September and the final step is required before the bill can be put in force.

This comes after two similar bills were extensively studied by the Commons and the Senate agriculture committees in previous sessions without either of them making it this far.

‘Flawed piece of legislation’

The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance said the bill is “a flawed piece of legislation that sets a troubling precedent.”

The organization representing exporters said it undermines the country’s commitment to rules-based international trading and sends the wrong message to trading partners.

CAFTA and others urged Ottawa to now focus on its accelerated trade diversification agenda.

“This includes continuing to open new markets, invest in and support the priorities of the export-oriented agriculture sector, address non-tariff barriers impacting existing trade agreements and remove regulatory barriers that are unnecessarily restricting the sector’s growth and competitiveness,” it said.

Grain Growers of Canada also called on the government to address issues that are affecting international trade, including critical infrastructure investments at the Port of Vancouver, returning public plant breeding research funding to pre-2013 levels and boosting the work of the Market Access Secretariat.

Executive director Kyle Larkin said there are now serious risks for Canada’s 70,000 grain farmers, who export more than 70 per cent of what they grow.

He said the government promised to expand the economy and expand international trade yet this was the first bill it passed.

“This legislation received unanimous consent from Members of Parliament without consulting with the Canadians it impacts the most, forcing the Senate to fast-track a flawed bill,” Larkin said.

Bill’s precedent questioned

The Senate vote was not unanimous.

The debate over previous iterations of the bill pit supply managed farmers against exporters. GGC acting chair Scott Hepworth said the government has now prioritized one group of farmers over another.

In the Senate, Alberta Senator Paula Simons said she felt uneasy at the speed with which C-202 went through both houses and put the concerns of several farmers who had contacted her on the record.

“My friends, with protectionism running rampant, when tariff and non-tariff trade barriers are popping up everywhere, Canada should not be giving in to populous protectionism. We should set an example as world leaders by taking down barriers, not building them higher,” she said.

Simons also said she worries about national unity.

“It does seem strange to allow a separatist party to set Canada’s national trade policy to such an extent and at the expenses of Western Canadian producers and agricultural exporters,” she said.

Canadian Cattle Association president Tyler Fulton said C-202 is bad trade policy.

“Trade is not a political game and C-202 was never about supply management,” he said.

Numerous witnesses spoke both for and against the bill during committee studies in the last few years. Sen. Amina Gerba, who had sponsored C-282 in the previous go-round, said everything has changed since Donald Trump became president and said he would go after Canada’s supply management system.

She said Prime Minister Mark Carney promised during the election campaign to protect supply management and he did.