EMERGENCY RISK REDUCTION

Usually Canadian politics is a bit on the boring side, but not when it involves the US. I actually think the 2^nd most popular sport in Canada…after hockey….is bashing America, or more specifically Donald Trump.  May 2018 is no exception, especially when Trump is threatening to dismantle or at least re-negotiate NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement.  Of course, the Canadian news media casts all the blame for imposing tariffs on the US…with Canada (and Mexico) as the victims. I am sorry to say, but this simply stretches the truth.

I have knowledge only on the agricultural trade side between Canada and the US. (I spoke a bit of this in a blog last year.) In brief, Canada has a ‘supply management’ system for two broad products: milk and poultry. This means that prices paid to farmers, production quantities, and import tariffs are all set by the government. The tariffs for US farmers to import fluid milk or poultry into Canada are about 250 -300%. Therefore, virtually no imports cross the border. The result: Milk, egg, cheese, yogurt, etc. prices are almost double that of the US. The impact is that the average middle class family and certainly lower class may scrimp on milk purchases.  And create a health risk factor for themselves or family members. Loyal readers know that I volunteer at a ‘soup kitchen’ here in Victoria, BC. Just this morning, dozens of people, mostly single men, came to the counter asking for glasses of milk — usually reserved for coffee. The reason is they can’t afford to purchase milk in the grocer. Too expensive.

The reason it’s too expensive is there’s no competition! The reason for no competition is tariffs on imported milk. And yet Canada lambasts the US for threatening to impose tariffs on imported products, when it does the same. Talk about the Pot calling the Kettle ‘black’.

As much as I love and support Canadian agriculture…and most of you know that this is my livelihood…it should not be an artificial support, which is what ‘supply management’ is. I encourage the system to be dismantled. It is outdated and unnecessary. It will go a long way to easing friction and cooling the rhetoric between two countries that need each other, and that I dearly love – Canada and the US.

Thanks for reading.