That
compares with nine per cent for farmers in the United States, one per cent in
New Zealand, 60 per cent in Norway and an average of 19 per cent for members of
the OECD.
As high as
this might seem – a total of $252 billion – it is actually a record low.
The OECD
says government policies didn’t change much, but global food prices increased.
The agency
praised Canada for ending the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on wheat and barley exports
from the Prairies, calling it “a positive step to enhance proactive price risk
management by farmers.”
But the
OECD said Canada’s dairy, poultry and egg sectors ''continue to receive high
price support.'' That counts as a government subsidy in the OECD calculations.
One of the
values of the calculations is setting the stage for global trade negotiations
aimed at reducing the export of highly-subsidized foods because they become
fierce competition for farmers in countries that can’t afford subsidies.
The
current “Doha Round” of World Trade negotiations was aimed at helping poor
countries, but after 10 years of talks, negotiations are stalled with no signs
that they will revive any time soon.
Instead,
Canada and many other relatively wealthy nations of the world are involved in
country-to-country or regional trade negotiations, such as Canada with the
European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership group that includes the United
States, Australia and New Zealand.
