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| Andrew MacDougall |
A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today that he
will not sacrifice supply management for dairy and poultry farmers just to get
a seat at the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations.
But Andrew MacDougall did not say what Canada will do if, during
the negotiations, it comes down to a trade-off that reduces Canada’s trade
barriers against dairy and poultry imports.
"The Canadian government supports supply management,"
said MacDougall. "The prime minister has been clear that Canada does not
negotiate away things to get to the table. The whole point of a negotiation is
to be at the table, to have negotiations."
"We go to the negotiating table and that's where we do our
work," said MacDougall. "We don't say that we will give away things
before we go there. That makes no sense."
So far, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is being negotiated among
the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru,
Singapore and Vietnam.
The United States and New Zealand have blocked Canada’s entry
into the negotiations, mainly because of Canada’s staunch defense of supply
management.
The National Pork Producers Council in the U.S. is also lobbying to keep Canada out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks because of Ontario's risk management program.
MacDougall noted that Canada is in a number of trade
negotiations and said they are “no different with the Trans-Pacific
Partnership. We're just not going to take things off the table just to get to
the table," he said.
Harper will arrive in Chile on Monday, where he is likely to
push for Canadian involvement in negotiations to establish the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, which is expected to become one of the world's most important free
trade agreements.
Harper recently announced that negotiations will begin soon with
Japan and Thailand.
There are also negotiations underway with the European Union.
In all three cases, those countries have significant agricultural trade barriers they are just as unwilling to give up as Canadians are to sacrifice supply management. It boils down to the political strength, including urban sympathy, held by the farm lobbies of the countries involved in the negotiations.
The same political power is the likely reason for the failure of the Doha Round of World Trade Negotiations which were, at the outset 10 years ago, designed to give a boost to the poorest nations of the world.
Greed and fear in the richest nations of the world still denies justice for the poor.
