CFA seeking urgent meeting regarding revisions to the Agreement on Internal Trade

October 10, 2009 - The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) is seeking an urgent meeting with the co-chairs of the Internal Trade Committee - Minister of Industry Tony Clement, and Yukon Minister of Economic Development Jim Kenyon - before the Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) meeting on October 15.

“CFA and its membership across the country are very concerned with the initiative to renegotiate the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Agreement on Internal Trade including the revisions to the agriculture chapter, Chapter Nine without any prior consultation with industry,” said CFA President Laurent Pellerin. “It is our understanding that a final analysis of the text is to be reviewed and finalized at the meeting in Whitehorse, Yukon on October 15th, 2009, before it is signed by Provincial Premiers this coming January 2010 despite providing no opportunity for the agri-food industry to see a copy of the proposed text and comment.  This process has certainly been less than transparent.”

CFA’s concerns include:

·         Industry has not been consulted, and any revision of Chapter Nine can and will have effects for every sector of Canadian Agriculture.

·         The text is being hidden from Industry at a key time in the process: October 15th, when the agreement is to be finalized, is less than a week away. 

·         What is suspected of the text, which is supposed to exclude the core functions of supply management and orderly marketing, may not be adequate.

·         It is also suspected the text does not address Ministerial Exemptions.

CFA and its provincial members are asking their respective provincial Premiers and ministers responsible for Agriculture and Trade:

·         To share a copy of the text currently under negotiation;

·         To consult with industry in the process of negotiating the final text of Chapter 9 on agriculture;

·         To not accept a text that will harm Canada’s ability to run an effective supply management system and to regulate the core functions of the system;

·         To not accept a text that will harm Canada’s ability to run effective marketing boards;

·         To propose to the other provinces that the wording and intention related to the protection and maintenance of supply management needs to reflect what was agreed to in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between Quebec and Ontario.

CFA and its members hope that requests for this meeting will be met in order to begin a dialogue about the process moving forward so industry can be properly informed and consulted before any agreement is reached.