Let’s Get Serious about Building Canadian Sovereignty in response to USA Aggression
After a 30-day “pause” the tariffs on Canadian exports to the USA are in place, imposed by the USA administration despite a month of efforts to dissuade them by dozens of Canadian Ministers, diplomats and trade representatives. And while Canada’s retaliatory tariffs have also gone ahead, they will do little to bring the current situation to a rapid end. We need to develop a serious response that will not only bolster Canada’s capacity to protect Canadian farmers from the devastating effects of 25% tariffs on exports, but also shield farmers, farm workers and consumers from the potential impacts of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports. We need a long-term strategy that increases our resilience to external shocks, and reduces our dependence on trade with the USA. President Trump’s disruptive strategy and lack of respect for rules means we can no longer consider trade agreements reliable. No one knows that better than folks in food and agriculture. No matter what happens, Canadian farmers, workers, and consumers would be well served by initiatives that strengthen our food sovereignty and reduce our vulnerability to supply chain disruption, income loss, price increases and food shortages.As farmers, we produce for international markets and for domestic consumption. Both markets are critical. We also use imported equipment and inputs. Strengthening food sovereignty—the democratic control of important decisions about food and agriculture—is a key strategy to withstand President Trump’s economic pressure tactics, a strategy that will also build the resilience needed to better weather any coming storms. Top priorities for action are:
- Defend Supply Management: Supply management is a model for a resilient, regional food system that ensures that the Canadian farmers who produce the high quality dairy, chicken, eggs and turkey Canadians consume, are paid enough to cover their cost of production and do not have their market flooded by imports. This stable, reliable system is not exposed to tariff threats. We need to use supply management as the model to build food sovereign systems. Large U.S. dairy corporations are lobbying hard to get access to Canada’s valuable markets, making our supply management a target for destruction. Farmers and consumers alike are counting on the federal government to stand firmly in support of supply management.
- Diversify export markets: Canada’s export-focused agricultural policy has created a high degree of dependency on the U.S. market, particularly for beef and pork, but for grain and oilseeds as well. In the short term, AgriStability can provide some support to participating farmers when there is a severe drop in prices and/or increase in input costs, however it is not accessible or suitable to nearly two-thirds of Canadian farmers, including many who are exposed to the U.S. tariff threat. These farmers need effective support to allow them to survive the impending turmoil. In the longer term, we need to adopt a multifunctionality policy framework similar to the European Union’s, and structural changes to diversify both our markets and the crops grown for export, as well as measures that support the long term viability of these farms. Possibilities include return to single-desk hog marketing and implementing single-desk beef marketing for farms operating at a commodity scale while leaving space for small scale direct marketing to continue; re-establishing the single desk Canadian Wheat Board and expanding it to cover all commodity grains; targets and support programs to increase the proportion of production using certified organic and other bona fide ecologically sound and climate mitigating practices.
- Promote & build regional and local markets: Local markets are critical to food sovereignty. Local and direct sales keep dollars in communities and food production where the eaters are. As retailers seek to replace US imports, demand for Canadian food products will quickly outstrip existing supply. We need to ramp up production that serves the domestic market to reduce our dependence on imported food. Federal and Provincial governments must now commit to rebuilding our local and regional food production, processing, storage and distribution infrastructure so that Canada has reliable, long-term capacity to feed our population.
- Protect Agricultural Workers: Building a more resilient and robust Canadian food system means ensuring agriculture workers’ jobs in both fields and food processing plants are good jobs, with fair wages, safe working conditions, and for migrant workers, full labour rights, open work permits, and a pathway to citizenship. An agricultural labour strategy that recognizes the seasonality of Canadian farming, and which provides livable incomes for farm workers year-round will be necessary to build a long term, resident labour force.
- Manufacture farm equipment: Canada once had a thriving and diverse farm equipment manufacturing industry producing a full line of machinery. There is a great opportunity to re-tool and expand our capacity to produce equipment designed for Canadian farms of all sizes and production types. An industrial strategy for Canada that includes farm machinery would have widespread benefits that extend beyond the agriculture sector.
- Prevent Corporate Profiteering: Our experience during the pandemic and Ukraine war has taught us that large corporations across the supply chain are willing to use their out-sized market power to increase their own profits at the expense of farmers, workers, and consumers alike. The federal government must therefore implement measures to prevent corporations from using the imposition of U.S. tariffs and the likely retaliatory Canadian tariffs as a cover for price gouging, wage suppression and discounting of farm product prices. Canada also needs to address the excessive concentration of ownership in the agriculture and food sector, where monopolistic behaviour has become the rule rather than the exception. Our anti-trust/competition framework has proven inadequate as seen by the approval of Bunge’s take-over of Viterra. If Canada is unable or unwilling to break up monopolistic companies, other methods of regulating and limiting their market power must be put in place or they will be in charge of our food supply.
Punitive American tariffs and a potentially expanding trade war creates uncertainty that is harmful to our livelihoods and our communities. Canadians’ determination to stand together provides the resolve to not only weather the current storm, but to build a strong foundation of food sovereignty for a more secure, resilient future. We urge the government to move swiftly toward this goal.
– 30 –
