Pork producers urge Ottawa to move swiftly on trade deal
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$19 $0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then billed as $19 every four weeks (new subscribers and qualified returning subscribers only). Cancel anytime.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/08/2018 (2050 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Manitoba’s pork producers are worried about a plunge in hog prices and are pressuring the federal Liberals to ink a major trade deal.
The head of the Manitoba Pork Council said his fellow producers are suffering from a spinoff of the United States’ tariffs, even though no tariffs directly impact Canadian pork.
“This is not a business for nervous nellies,” Andrew Dickson said. “[But] there’s been a dramatic drop of prices in the U.S., and for us in Canada it’s like they get a cold and we get pneumonia.”
American hog prices were already on a downswing due to oversupply that left processing plants struggling to keep up.
The Trump administration then decided to levy tariffs on Mexico and China, prompting retaliatory levies from both countries on U.S. pork. That forced American farmers to drop their base prices as of early July, to dissuade foreign companies from sourcing pork elsewhere.
Canadian pork prices are benchmarked to the daily American average pork rate, to ensure hogs from Canada remain competitive. Dickson says that’s meant a single pig that sold for roughly $175 last year now sells closer to $120 and at one point sold for even less than $100.
Federal data compiled from provincial governments and associations show hog prices dropping nationwide. Manitoba pork sells per kilogram 15 per cent lower than the same week a year ago, while it’s almost 20 per cent lower in Saskatchewan.
“Our prices have come down in lockstep. The one thing that’s saving us is that our Canadian dollar has gone down and we’ve sort of gotten some preferential treatment in certain markets.”
Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen’s riding includes some of those hog farmers. None has contacted her about the issue, but she’s concerned by the data.
“We’ve been asking and warning about these problems for more than year,” she said, “and I don’t think [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau is even recognizing the impact this is having on our agricultural producers.”
Dickson said Manitoba farmers are impatiently waiting for the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to become active, a trade deal that includes Canada as well as Japan and South Korea, two markets that lean heavily on Manitoba pork.
He said putting the deal in place would immediately drop levies on pork that Manitoba already sends to those countries, bolstering their budgets amid U.S. uncertainty. Nationally, it could account for an extra half-billion in annual revenue, he claimed.
“We wish the federal government would get on with ratifying CPTPP, because it would give us a real boost in the marketplace,” Dickson said. “It’s absolutely huge for us.”
That deal involves 11 countries and only comes into force two months after six countries ratify it; so far, only three have done so.
Tory Leader Andrew Scheer asked the Liberals last month to reconvene the House of Commons for an emergency sitting this summer, to pass the legislation required to ratify CPTPP.
As the Conservatives’ House Leader, Bergen said her MPs would limit their debate in order to pass the bill, but she admitted it’s unclear how the NDP would respond — the party blocked a Tory motion seeking unanimous consent to fast-track the bill in June and some MPs have raised concerns about labour issues.
It’s also unknown whether senators would have an appetite to meet prior to their scheduled Sept. 18 sitting; the bill would need the Red Chamber’s approval to pass.
Bergen said Ottawa “can’t have a crystal ball” but ought to have prepared ways to mitigate blows from the U.S. and spinoffs such as the pork issue that end up hitting Canadians. “Sometimes it’s too little too late.”
She said the Liberals ought to have included a contingency fund in their spring budget to subsidize industries hit by tariffs. (In late June, the Liberals announced compensation for the metals industry.)
Winnipeg South Centre MP Jim Carr became minister for trade diversification a month ago. His office said there is “a very specific threshold for recalling Parliament” and chastised Scheer’s talk on trade.
“The Conservative leader and his party seems more focused on parliamentary stunts than constructive cooperation,” wrote spokeswoman Ann-Clara Vaillancourt.
“I hope their ultimate goal is not to stoke people’s anxiety.”
Vaillancourt claimed the Tories left office in 2015 with “stalled talks” and “were only too happy to give up on our intellectual property.”
Last November, Trudeau reportedly stalled negotiations by not showing up to a meeting in Vietnam and instead meeting his Japanese counterpart. A photo of his empty chair made newspaper front pages.
“The Tories should have aimed higher, but didn’t. We did. We took some short-term knocks for doing so and now we have a truly comprehensive, fair deal on the cusp of ratification,” wrote Vaillancourt, adding that “the NDP remain locked in an anti-trade straitjacket.”
She said the Liberals expect to ratify the deal “late this year or early next.”
Dickson said Winnipeggers can expect lower pork prices at the grocery counter this winter, prompting greater demand, which will later help lift those prices higher.
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca