The battle between China and Canada continues at so-called diplomatic levels, and the Canadian Ag industry keeps feeling the effects and suffering through this political dispute.
Media reports had Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau going tit for tat with China’s leadership.
Pulse Ghana, a news site from Ghana, displayed a headline that said, “China slams Canada for accusations of ‘arbitrary detentions.’” That response came after Trudeau told a Canadian newspaper editorial board, “China’s use of arbitrary detention as a tool to achieve political goals” concerned not only to Canada but to Western allies.”
Chris White, the President and CEO of the Canadian Meat Council, said the entire Canadian red meat sector is calling for government action to address China’s ‘temporary suspension’ of pork and beef imports from Canada.
The cost of China’s temporary suspension of Canadian pork and beef imports, imposed June 25 after Chinese Customs identified a shipment of non-Canadian pork exhibiting technical irregularities and fraudulently certified as Canadian with falsified documents, is approaching 100 million dollars. This when the agricultural sectors, whether grain, pulses and red meat, are suffering from lack of product movement, much of which had markets destined for China.
White said the longer the situation drags on, the higher the losses will be. When China finally lifts the suspension, the more difficult it will be to regain market share lost to Canada’s competitors.
“The immediate task is to assist the industry concerning compensation,” he said. “The reason the Chinese government gave to Canada for the suspension was owing to irregularities as a consequence of (CFIA), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It wasn’t because of anything wrong with the Canadian product, or anything Canadian companies did. The ask for compensation is because it appears from an industry perspective the suspension resulted as action by the government.
White said the second thing is to assist, and the government is doing this, to help secure and identify other potential markets for Canadian products. Thirdly if the suspension continues, are there other programs or remedies within the government of Canada?
“For example, if there are job losses, what can government do to assist people in getting retraining or employment insurance if it’s a short term job loss,” he said. “There are other provisions the government has that they can provide some short term assistance to the industry. So the government is looking at what those options might be, and they’ll be making some recommendations to industry in terms of what they think they can do.”
White said government and industry had established a working group to determine what compensation might look like and what’s needed to make intelligent recommendations. The sector is working to provide that data.
The Canadian Meat Council calls on all parties ahead of the upcoming Federal election to articulate how they see this file being resolved. The longer Canadian producers and exporters remain pawns in a political stand-off – the more the threat of job losses will be felt. The red meat sector represents 266,000 jobs from farm to fork.
Then looking at it from the American side the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) said the latest increase in Chinese tariffs on U.S. pork would further limit the ability of American pork producers to take advantage of the opportunities created by declining Chinese pork production.
Then some Canadians may ask what do tariffs on U.S. products have to do with the Canadian meat industry – everything! Canada ships so much product south and the American markets set the Canadian price.
In response to the latest increase in U.S. tariffs on imported products from China, China has further heightened import tariffs on U.S. products.
Maria Zieba, the Director of International Affairs for the NPPC, said American pork producers are already having a difficult time exporting into China. With China imposing a 72 percent tariff on U.S. pork, compared to 12 percent charged on pork from competing nations, is significant.
“We need to have a deal as quickly as possible with the Chinese that eliminates all of these retaliatory tariffs and addresses those issues that limit our exports,” said Zieba. “That’s what we’re asking. We understand that this is a bigger issue that affects the rest of the U.S. economy. But paying a 72 percent tariff, in the long run, will hurt our industry now that African Swine Fever has devastated the China pork industry.”
She said with China the largest pork producer and consumer of pork in the world and ASF kills a large part of their industry, there’s a tremendous opportunity for U.S. pork. But unfortunately, because of that high tariff, that opportunity is going to American competitors and not to the U.S.
NPPC continues to urge the Trump administration to end the trade dispute with China. •
— By Harry Siemens