Mr. Chair, I am pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this take note debate on the Canada-EU trade agreement.
While there is widespread support for a Canada-EU trade agreement, concerns have been raised specifically as to what is on the negotiating table with respect to one of our key agriculture institutions. If nothing else regarding the negotiations on the Canada-EU trade agreement, the reality is, and remains, that supply management is on the negotiating table and has been from the very beginning. This fact was confirmed by Canada's chief negotiators,not once but at least three times before two committees of the House.
On June 15 before the international trade committee, the government's chief agriculture negotiator stated:
At the time the negotiations were launched, there was an agreement that there was to be a no-exclusion a priori.... That essentially left it open to each side to make proposals on anything of interest to them.
[I]t's up to the European Union to make proposals that may relate to protocols under supply management.
At the same committee, on November 15 the chief negotiator stated:
[W]hen we started the negotiations we agreed officially that everything was on the table. That was an explicit agreement at the beginning. As to whether everything will be on the table at the end of the negotiations, that's a different question.
More recently, on December 2, Canada's chief negotiator stated in the context of supply management that “everything was on the table when we began the negotiations”.
The rhetoric from the political side of the Conservative government about supporting supply management is, in many respects, suspect. In reality, one can support the idea of something until, to obtain something else, it is negotiated away. If the Conservatives were really honest in saying that they will defend supply management, then it would not be on the table in the first place, because there is the real possibility that although they support the idea of supply management, it can in fact be negotiated away for something else. It can be traded off. That is our worry in the official opposition. That is the worry of the Dairy Farmers of Canada.
We have in supply management one of the models for the world in terms of having a system whereby farmers collectively come together and achieve their cost of production and a fair return on labour investment in lieu of managing supply to meet effective demand and providing products at reasonable prices to consumers. It is one of the models that the world should be looking at, that we should be promoting to other countries around the world instead of running the risk of negotiating it away.
Even if the government allowed supply management to remain on the negotiating table which, so far as the EU is concerned is therefore subject to negotiation, the government can claim it supports it, but does it really? If the government were honest that it supports supply management, the government would simply state that the issue of supply management has been removed from negotiations of any kind.
According to Dairy Farmers of Canada, Canada has agreed that there would be no prior exceptions, but did indicate that this was a position which should be of concern, given the EU's common agricultural policy, CAP, is not on the negotiating table. It is serious that CAP is not on the negotiating table. What essentially is CAP and why should we be concerned that this program is not on the table?
CAP is what serves European farmers and serves them well. I spent considerable time a number of years ago studying common agricultural policy. On an annual basis the EU spends about 43 billion euros on CAP, of which 88% is in direct payments, with the remainder dedicated to programs focused on responding to declines in market prices of commodities.
Given that a single Canadian dollar has a 75¢ value in euros, the amount available under CAP, common agricultural policy, to the European farmer community is about $30 billion Canadian annually. That is serious.
The European community is willing to be there and support their governments. They are willing to stand up and not put it on the negotiating table. Yet on one of the most progressive and valued farm programs in this country, the Conservative government has actually put it on the table and has admitted so several times. CAP represents approximately 46% of the EU's total budget.
During the most recent hearings of the agriculture committee, officials negotiating the Canada-EU trade deal did not deny that the EU has removed from discussion the common agricultural policy. Dairy Farmers of Canada have indicated that “while the Canadian government remains committed to defending supply management the EU's insistence to gain access to the Canadian cheese market and obtain agreement that geographical indications be fully recognized”.
My colleague from the Bloc, the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, raised a question with the minister a few moments ago, and he certainly did not get many answers. He in fact got none.
This is a government that is not transparent about how these negotiations are pressing forward. This is a serious issue, that our cheese markets could potentially be opened up and undermine our price structure in Canada. That is a serious issue. Geographical indications could also be a serious issue for some of our products that are produced in this country.
This is of serious concern to our dairy producers. They have maintained that the government defend our industry from this provision being weakened during these negotiations.
Finally, Dairy Farmers provided an analysis in November and stated that if the negotiations are continuing on the basis of the fourth draft modalities on agriculture, that is December 2008, that draft states that Canada will be required to “reduce over quota tariffs by 23% and agree to additional access to dairy products market potentially reaching 6% of consumption”. The DFC estimates that this would result in income losses in excess of $1 billion at the farm gate, or the equivalent of over 20% of proceeds from milk sales at the farm gate. That is serious.
According to a study conducted in April 2010 by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the position articulated by the EU in the December 2009 document on, for example, the Canadian Wheat Board, are consequential:
Hampering the procurement policies of the Wheat Board...complements the EU's publicly-stated goal of dismantling the Board, which it reiterated at the outset of negotiations.
This is an issue which requires full and careful consideration prior to any agreement being fully negotiated, let alone concluded.
Supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board are pillars of our agricultural policy in this country. Supply management maintains a system of supply in which farmers are assured their cost of production and a fair rate of return on their labour and investment. The Canadian Wheat Board maximizes returns back to the primary producer through orderly marketing or single-desk selling.
While we acknowledge that Canada is a trading nation and that our agricultural sector to a very great extent is dependent upon export markets, it would serve us well to keep in mind the reality that we cannot allow some of our main institutions to be negotiated away.