(OTTAWA) – As World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators begin another series of meetings to hammer out a new deal on global trade, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) is reiterating its expectations for an agreement. The negotiators will be meeting in Geneva from today until February 22 and will be working from a new text released last week by WTO Agriculture Chair Crawford Falconer.

CFA is encouraged with the progress achieved to date on market access for our exporters and domestic support. However on sensitive products CFA sees little progress in the Falconer paper. The proposals currently on the table for sensitive products would have serious negative consequences for Canada’s supply managed sectors. Finally, CFA remains concerned with Falconer’s position on state trading enterprises (STEs). CFA maintains that, while disciplines on STEs are appropriate, the decision to establish an STE with monopoly powers is an internal affair that should not be subject to blanket prohibition under the WTO.

“The talks are nearly where Canada needs them to be to benefit our export sectors. Unfortunately we are still a long way off on sensitive products,” said Bob Friesen, CFA President. “The CFA applauds the work done by the Canadian government in the negotiations and encourages the government to continue to work with Falconer and other countries to address the current gaps in the text related to our supply managed industries. I am confident solutions can be found that will benefit all our agricultural sectors.”

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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.