December 14, 2012

Canada eyes New Zealand's pork ban in trade talks

In the TransPacific Partnership trade talks, Canadian pork producers have on their sights the New Zealand pork import restrictions.

Canada and Mexico formally joined the 11-country talks in Auckland where the latest round of negotiations wrapped up on Wednesday (Dec 12).

Tariffs protecting Canadian dairy farmers and restricting competing imports are high on the agenda for New Zealand in the talks. But Kathleen Sullivan from the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, which represents the country's agricultural export companies, says if New Zealand wants better access to its consumers then it has to offer something in return.

The New Zealand pork industry continues to challenge the Primary Industries Ministry proposal to allow imports of fresh pork products from countries, including Canada, that have the pig disease PRRS. Last month it took MPI to the Court of Appeal, which has yet to release its decision.

US pork producers are also lobbying for New Zealand to remove all restrictions on pork imports.

Sullivan says tariffs are just one type of barrier to trade, and other, non-tariff barriers still block market access. She added that scrapping tariffs could undermine the value of production quota held by Canadian dairy farmers which sells for up to US$30,000 a cow.

She says the Canadian government could buy the quota which accounts for up to 10% of the country's 200,000 farms to aid the transition to a market without tariffs.

A dairy industry source says New Zealand could live with the Canadian government buying up the cut-price quota so long as it could be guaranteed that tariffs keeping out its exports will eventually be dumped.