Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss the Canadian beef sector's experience with the People's Republic of China.
I'm a beef producer from Birtle, Manitoba, and I currently serve as the foreign trade chair and vice-president of the Canadian Cattle Association.
I can sum up our views on China succinctly by stating that we are dissatisfied with the present situation in which we have no access for Canadian beef exports. It's also questionable whether any future access for Canadian beef exports to China will come with the security that trade rules should provide.
China suspended imports from one Canadian beef exporting facility in 2020, citing COVID concerns. It is important to note that they did not take similar action against beef facilities in other countries that were experiencing COVID outbreaks amongst their employees.
China expanded its action against Canadian beef by suspending all imports in December 2021 following the discovery of an atypical case of BSE in a Canadian cow. To be clear, the discovery of atypical BSE should not be cause for trade restrictions. To quote the World Organisation for Animal Health, “Atypical BSE refers to naturally and sporadically occurring forms, which are believed to occur in all bovine populations at a very low rate, and which have only been identified in older bovines when conducting intensive surveillance.”
In other words, every country that is undertaking proper surveillance should expect to detect an atypical BSE case. While a few countries briefly suspended imports, China is the only trading partner that did not quickly restore Canadian beef access. It is further galling to us that China has singled out Canadian beef for such trade restrictions. The U.S.A. has discovered a number of atypical cases, including a case in May of last year, yet China has not suspended U.S. exports. I want to be clear that China did act appropriately toward the U.S.'s atypical BSE cases. Atypical BSE cases do not warrant trade restrictions, and China should have treated Canada in the same manner they treated the U.S.
Brazil reported two atypical BSE cases in 2021 and was suspended by China for 13 days. It is inappropriate that China took trade action against Brazil, but at least they moved quickly to restore trade, proving that they can do it when they want to. It has been over 29 months since China suspended Canadian beef with no apparent interest in restoring trade. Our analysis is that China has violated at least two fundamental provisions of the WTO agreements.
First, they have violated the sanitary and phytosanitary provisions by imposing a trade-restricting measure in contravention of the relevant international standard without any risk assessment or scientific justification.
Second, they have shown discrimination by treating Canada more restrictively than they have other trading partners. We had hoped that China might lift these sanctions through constructive dialogue, but our frustration has grown these last two-plus years as China has refused to engage with Canadian officials. Despite some recent meetings, no results have been achieved, and none seem likely in the near future. Given this experience, we have serious concerns that even if—or when—China resumes imports of Canadian beef, we will not be able to rely on the access being secure for the long term.
With the lack of action and movement on China's part, our sector has started to raise the concern that Canada should start a formal process to exercise our WTO rights. We need to send a strong signal to China and all of our trading partners that Canada will always stand up for science-based and rules-based trade.
Thanks.