NDP leader Tom Mulcair has stepped into the
supply-management fray surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations,
saying Prime Minister Stephen Harper should defend supply management "in
its entirety".
Harper's most recent remarks on the trade talks
have created uncertainty for Canadian egg, poultry and dairy producers, Mulcair
writes in a letter to the prime minister.
"I am urging you to commit to defending
supply management in its entirety and reassure Canadians that it will be
protected in all future negotiations," Mulcair writes in the letter, sent
late last week.
He says nothing about gains Canada hopes to make
for export commodities, such as grain, beef and pork, but, then again, he's more interested in protecting the gains the NDP made in Quebec in the last election than in mildly offending grain and livestock farmers.
"Concessions in supply management sectors
could have profoundly negative effects on our regional economies," writes Mulcair.
"In Quebec alone, nearly 7,000 family farms
exist and prosper thanks to supply management, which also accounts for 92,000
jobs and 43 per cent of total agricultural revenue."
Last Thursday, Harper said Canada is
"working to protect" the supply management system while it
participates in the trade talks. That's about as mealy-mouthed as a politician can get.
"I believe these negotiations are going to establish
what will become the basis of the international trading network in the Asia
Pacific.”
Harper said “it is essential in my view that
Canada be part of that — that the Canadian economy be part of that.
"At the same time, we are working to
protect our system of supply management and our farmers in other sectors,"
he said without offering any details.
Dairy farmers are still waiting to see what
compensation Harper will offer in connection with concessions on cheese imports
from the recent trade deal with the European Union.
