Chinese Rollback of Tariffs on U.S. Pork Further Jeopardises Canada’s Competitive Position

The Canadian Meat Council warns China’s rollback of tariffs on U.S. pork further jeopardizes Canada’s competitive position in that market

by Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online

In June China suspended Canadian pork and beef imports in response to the discovery of fraudulent export certificates that had identified non-Canadian product as Canadian.

Since then the Canadian Embassy in Beijing and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have been working with China Customs to implement safeguards to ensure a more rigorous Canadian certification system.
Canadian Meat Council President and CEO Chris White says news last week that China is rolling back tariffs on U.S. pork heightens the urgency of the situation.

“Ever since the suspension has been put in place there has been an urgency because, as you can appreciate, those markets are critical to the bottom line of any number of Canadian companies”

 

“Ever since the suspension has been put in place there has been an urgency because, as you can appreciate, those markets are critical to the bottom line of any number of Canadian companies.

“As an export nation, when you have those opportunities, you want to maximize them and certainly because the Americans are not a signatory to the CPTPP, that gave Canadian companies a distinct advantage so the rollback of the tariffs certainly is to the benefit clearly of the Americans so it further disadvantages Canadian companies.

“But also the concern is, the longer the suspension is in place, even when it is ultimately taken off, it won’t be necessarily that easy to get back into the Chinese market at the levels that Canada was prior to the suspension being imposed and it does allow the Americans to secure a greater percentage of those markets, particularly now that their tariffs have been rolled back for them.

“It’s just an a cumulative effect that none of this is good for Canadian companies.”

White says Canada is currently waiting for an official reaction from China to the changes that have been made.
He is hopeful the appointment of Dominic Barton as Canada’s next ambassador to China will help kick start the discussions.

Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online