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WHOA, BACK OFF THERE, MR. ED
NEWS
Equine meets canine at the Watkins farm near Aylesbury, Sask. The family Black Labrador Retriever tolerates the horses as long as they keep
their distance. | MICKEY WATKINS PHOTO
MANITOBA DAIRY CONFERENCE | SUPPLY MANAGEMENT
New Zealand is enemy No. 1: historian
Dairy’s biggest enemy | New Zealand campaigns against Canada’s supply management system
BY ED WHITE
WINNIPEG BUREAU
Supply management is an
“incredible” system in almost every
way, but it is threatened by forces
like New Zealand, historian Bruce
Muirhead told an appreciative
crowd at the Manitoba Dairy Conference.
Muirhead, a University of Waterloo
professor, condemned the
modern world’s embrace of neoliberalism
and painted a picture of
hypocritical foreign countries subsidizing
their own dairy industries
while claiming to want free trade.
“Why is it they’re so opposed to
what we are doing,” said Muirhead,
who noted agricultural production
is only a small part of most countries’
economies and a tiny part of
economies in advanced countries.
“Ideology comes down, I think, to
a good part of the reason as to why
the OECD (Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development)
and the WTO (World Trade
Organization) and certain other
governments are opposed to Canada’s
supply management system,”
he said.
Muirhead said supply management
was a product of an age in
which government-based economic
arrangements were seen as
part of the solution to problems,
while now many societies see government
as more of a problem.
Supply management is under
Bruce Muirhead of the University of Waterloo denounced New Zealand
as the Canadian dairy industry’s “enemy” during the Manitoba Dairy
Conference. | ED WHITE PHOTO
intense scrutiny around the world,
especially because Canada is trying
to negotiate a trade deal with the
European Union and has begun its
negotiations for the Trans Pacific
Partnership.
Muirhead said Europe has
shown signs of allowing Canadian
supply management to survive as
long as Canada ditches its
favourable arrangements for
generic drug makers.
However he doubts the TPP, driven
by free trade advocate New Zealand,
will be as willing to compromise.
THE WESTERN PRODUCER | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | DECEMBER 13, 2012
“Most people probably think of
New Zealand as a nice little country
where they filmed Lord of the Rings
and they have hobbits, but actually
New Zealand is our number one
enemy when it comes to dairy,” he
said.
Muirhead painted a menacing
portrait of New Zealand’s Fonterra,
although he paid tribute to the giant
dairy co-operative’s significant
profitability. It not only dominates
its nation’s production but also has
operations in South America, Africa
and Asia.
Muirhead said the company
wants access to Canadian markets
and maybe even production, so it
sees supply management as a primary
obstacle. The New Zealand
government’s campaign against
Canadian supply management is
chiefly driven by Fonterra, Muirhead
said.
“Whatever it is that Fonterra
wants, the New Zealand government
sets out to achieve for it,” said
Muirhead.
He said Canada’s supply management
system makes sense but is
under tremendous pressure
because of aggressive trade competitors
such as Australia, the United
States and Europe and because it
is out of kilter with the prevailing
world economic ethos.
However, he said Canadians
should fight for it.
“It’s really quite an incredible system
we have here.”
77
THE WORLD IN BRIEF
SHIPPING EFFICIENCIES
Brazil launches $26B
port investment program
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) — Brazil’s
government has launched a $26
billion port investment program to
reduce the high costs and notorious
delays in shipping goods in and out
of the major commodities exporter.
The plan to modernize port infrastructure
announced by president
Dilma Rousseff seeks to increase
investment in Brazil’s ports through
partnership with private companies.
The bidding process that will open
next year will favour tenders that
offer the lowest tariffs for handling
the greatest volume of cargo, moving
away from a prior model of
granting concessions to the highest
bidder.
“Our objective is the greatest movement
of cargo possible at the lowest
possible cost,” Rousseff said.
“We want to increase the efficiency
of Brazilian ports with this partnership,
which will make our exports
more competitive and increase
production,” she said. “We want an
explosion of investment through
this partnership with the private
sector.”
The bulk of the investment would
be made between 2014 and 2017,
ports minister Leonidas Cristino
said.
The ports slated for modernization
include Santos, which is Latin
America’s largest port by value of
goods moved, Rio de Janeiro, Paranagua,
Porto Alegre, Espiritu Santo,
Itaqui, Pecem and Suape.
WORLD FOOD PRICES
Farm investments must
rise to beat hunger: UN
ROME, Italy (Reuters) — Investment
in agriculture must increase
substantially to reduce hunger in a
world struggling with high and volatile
food prices, the United Nations
food agency said.
About 870 million people, or one
in eight of the world’s population
are chronically undernourished,
the UN said this year. Eradicating
extreme hunger is among the UN
Millennium Development Goals to
tackle global poverty.
Governments can spur farmer
investments by ensuring property
rights are respected, improving
rural infrastructure and encouraging
the formation of producer cooperatives,
the Rome-based Food
and Agriculture Organization said.
“Farmers must be central to any
strategy for increasing investment
in the sector,” FAO said, adding
on-farm investment, or spending by
farmers, is more than three times as
large as all other sources of investment
combined, including foreign
and government contributions.
In The State of Food and Agriculture
2012 report, FAO warned levels
of private and public investment per
worker in agriculture are stagnant
or falling in regions where rural poverty
and hunger are most severe.
Poor governance, high levels of
corruption and high taxation of agriculture
are among the many hurdles
that reduce incentives for farmers to
invest in the sector.
FAO also said that large scale
investments offer opportunities for
employment and technology transfer
but governments and companies
must ensure local people benefit
and that land transfers are conducted
in a transparent and fair way.