Growing trade dispute leaves farmers uneasy
Federal minister says Canada will watch for dumping, too
A looming U.S.-China trade war may or may not open up more opportunities for Canadian farm exports, federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay says.
Canada will continue to try to expand its shipments in a broad range of exports to China regardless of how the current trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies plays out, MacAulay said.
“It would not change our agenda,” MacAulay said during a visit to Kelowna. “What we intend to do is continue to promote our products. “We’re increasing our pork and beef shipments to China,” he added. “We just got a number of slaughterhouses confirmed as being able to ship product into China, which is very important to our agriculture sector.”
Some Canadian farm leaders have expressed concern about the prospect of U.S. fruit and produce being dumped into this country following China’s announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on some U.S. agricultural imports.
MacAulay said the topic did not come up during his meeting with Okanagan fruit famers, but said the Liberal government would monitor the market.
“Of course, dumping is an issue in itself,” he said. “It’s always a concern to make sure these things don’t happen.
“But we’re an exporting nation,” he said. “There’s a big demand for a lot of our agricultural products worldwide, and I think the agricultural sector here and right across the country understands that the potential for growth is big, and it’s important the government plays a role in that.”
After meeting apple and cherry growers, MacAulay toured the Sun-Rype fruit processing facility in downtown Kelowna.
“It’s a big employer in the area, they produce a great product,” MacAulay said of Sun-Rype, which is owned by Jim Pattison Group.