(OTTAWA) – Representatives of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) will head to Geneva this week to take part in a World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meeting. Pushing for gains in market access for Canada’s agricultural export commodities will be one of the key goals of the CFA. CFA will also be supporting a balanced position on sensitive products.

“We’re aiming for a win-win scenario in Geneva,” said Bob Friesen, CFA President. “A win-win would be significant market access improvement for exporters, profitable market access, and market access that makes a real difference. A win-win deal is one that would ensure that supply management in Canada is recognized for the transparent market access commitments that have been made, and it would be a deal that doesn't undermine our ability to maintain supply management as well as other orderly marketing structures.”

CFA is calling for the complete elimination of tariffs on non-sensitive products.  With the elimination of these tariffs market access can be achieved for numerous Canadian agricultural exports. “Total tariff elimination for non-sensitive products is the only course. If countries are allowed to just reduce tariffs it won’t likely result in real market access improvement,” said Friesen.

CFA is disappointed with the draft modalities text recently released by WTO Agriculture Committee Chair Crawford Falconer. “This paper does not include enough of the proposals put forward by Canada to create the conditions for the kind of win-win scenario we envision.” said Friesen. “CFA representatives will be in Geneva this week, supporting our negotiators and fighting for Canadian interests.”

In recent weeks CFA has also doubled its efforts to increase market access for Canadian exporters by calling for more work on building bilateral trade agreements with other countries outside of the WTO.

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Founded in 1935 to provide Canada's farmers with a single voice in Ottawa, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture is the country's largest farmers' organization. Its members include provincial general farm organizations as well as national and inter-provincial commodity organizations from every province. Through its members, CFA represents over 200,000 Canadian farmers and farm families.