Stephen Harper
misled dairy farmers about the full impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
trade deal when he said they would be yielding 3.2 per cent of their market.
They are, in fact,
in line to yield an increase of 18.3 per cent in duty-free quotas.
It’s a fine piece
of Tory dissembling – misleading the public while telling the truth.
The
details have been learned by Canadian processing companies, but have not been
shared with farmers who belong to marketing boards. My Ontario Farmer reporter colleague, Ian Cumming, got the goods from the United States.
Canada
will establish 14 new permanent, TPP-wide (i.e. 11-nations) Tariff-Rate Quotas
(TRQs), which will have in quota rates of zero per cent and will grow for 13 to
19 years before reaching maximum levels.
Tariff-free
access volumes will increase over the full 19-year period, then plateau.
Information
released by the United States is that TRQs will start at:
butter
4,500 tons,
fluid
milk 50,000 tons,
cheese
14,500 tons,
low fat
powders 7,500 tons,
yogurt
6,000 tons,
concentrated
milk 2,000 tons
whey
powder 6,000 tons.
These
increases range from a one to three per cent growth by year six, with an
additional compounded growth rate continuing until year 19.
Other
dairy TRQ’s quantities will be set in year one, and from years two to 14
quantities will increase at the compounded growth rate.
These
set quantities will be:
whole
milk powder 1,000 tons,
cream
powder 100 tons,
cream
500 tons,
powdered
buttermilk 750 tons,
natural
milk constituents 4,000 tons,
ice
cream and ice cream powders 1,000 tons
other
dairy 1,000 tons.
The
report also noted that, “Canada will reserve substantial portions of the TRQ’s
for butter (85 per cent) fluid milk (85 per cent) cheese (55 per cent) and
yogurt (30 per cent) for processing use.”
The U.S.
will eliminate tariffs on high-value
Canadian artisanal cheese over 10 years. Also “new TRQ’s will be established
for other dairy products under terms similar to those used by Canada,” the
information released by the U.S. government says.
For
product from Canada allowed into the U.S., the negotiated rates were: butter
4,500 tons, cheese 18,000 tons, skim milk powder 12,000 tons, whole milk powder
4,000 ton, concentrated milk and cream 2,000 tons, dried yogurt, whey, sour
cream and natural milk constituents 12,500 tons, fluid products including ice
cream 8.5 million litres and other dairy 7,500 tons.
The U.S.
will also reserve 55 per cent of its cheese TRQ and 85 per cent of its butter
TRQ for product in non-retail sized packages.
