July 20, 2007

Canadian dairy and poultry farmers reject WTO draft

The first WTO draft on agriculture was rejected by Canada's agricultural producers as detrimental to the country's industry.

The draft, by Crawford Falconer, agriculture trade negotiations Chair for the World Trade Organization (WTO) would favour exports way over domestic products, dairy, poultry and egg farmers said.

Jacques Laforge, president of Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), said there are too few sensitive domestic products allowed and they are treated very harshly. While there are provisions offering flexibility for other countries, there are none for Canada's supply management sectors, he added.

David Fuller, chairman of Chicken Farmers of Canada said the agreement would actually force Canadian farmers to cut back production in favour of products from other countries, he said. This would threaten the ability of a country to decide where they want their food to come from, he added.

Fuller urged Canadian Government to stand firm next week in Geneva and reject the agreement.

The Canadian Broiler Hatching Egg Marketing Agency said the number of suggested tariff lines that could be included as sensitive products is even less than the agreement prepared in June, and only half of what would be needed for dairy, egg, and poultry products to even be considered in the sensitive product category.