Media release

Canada’s canola industry counting on world trade reform

November 21, 2006: Canada’s $6 billion canola industry needs a new world trade environment. Canola Council of Canada president Barb Isman is urging Canada’s WTO negotiators to continue to press for meaningful reduction of tariffs and subsidies.

Isman says trade liberalization through the WTO is fundamental to the future prosperity of the Canadian canola industry.

“We are specifically seeking an end to the discriminatory tariffs on canola relative to other seeds, oils and fats; parity between canola seed and canola oil tariffs; and the elimination of trade distorting subsidies,” she says.

The Canola Council president says Canada must aim for the most ambitious outcome possible in the current round of world trade talks. “With the WTO ministers meeting in Hong Kong just weeks away,” Isman says “Canada’s canola growers, processors, researchers and retailers are counting on gaining fair access to world markets.”

Canada’s canola exports of seed, oil and meal add up to about $2 billion dollars a year but Isman says exports would “grow considerably” if trade barriers came down.

As an example, she says canola growers’ incomes are being hurt by price-depressing domestic subsidy programs of the U.S. and the EU and by hidden subsidies used to promote soybean production in South America and palm oil production in Malaysia.

Isman says tariffs that discriminate against canola seed and oil also hurt trade. For instance, in China and Taiwan, canola seed has a higher tariff than soybeans. In South Korea, Pakistan and India, canola oil has higher tariffs than soybean oil. Reducing canola and canola oil tariffs to the same level as soybeans and soybean oil in India and South Korea alone could return more than $270 million to Canadian canola growers and processors.

Isman says the current World Trade Organization negotiations hold a great deal of potential benefit for Canada. She says bilateral free trade agreements, while also useful, “cannot possibly tackle the systemic problems in global agricultural trade”.

Tyler Bjornson, vice-president of corporate affairs at the Canola Council of Canada; Stewart Gilroy, canola grower and a director of the Alberta Canola Development Commission; and Richard Wansbutter, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and a director of the Canola Council of Canada, will represent the Canadian canola industry at the WTO negotiations in Hong Kong.

The Canola Council is a member of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA). CAFTA represents agricultural sectors united in their dependence on trade and in their need for a liberalized international trading environment. Visit www.cafta.org and www.canola-council.org/industry.html.