Canada must defend its food-safety sovereignty

May 10, 2007
10 May 2007
 
Canada must defend its food-safety sovereignty
 
The following article by Sylvain Charlebois, assistant professor in business administration at the University of Regina, appears in the 10 May 2007 edition of “globeandmail.com”.
 
Massive recalls prompted by contaminants in the United States and new pesticide rules should alarm Canadian regulators and consumers alike.
 
With globalization making pressing demands for change on national economies, Canada must defend its food-safety sovereignty. Since 1996, Canadian and U.S. regulators have been working to harmonize pesticide regulations under the North American free trade agreement. As a result, Canada is set to raise its limits on pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables for hundreds of products — the United
States allows higher residue levels for 40 per cent of the pesticides it regulates, due to its longer pest season.
 
In the short term, the consequences are that Canada will probably make some welcome trade gains. In the future, however, and more importantly for Canadian industries and consumers, the decision is hopelessly mistaken, for two fundamental reasons: economic dependence and food politics.
 
Firstly, we must consider the long-term economic factors. One could speculate that the weakening U.S. dollar may have pushed Canadian authorities to ease trade….
 
Secondly, politics are inherently embedded in food trade. The recent influx of agreements, akin to NAFTA, has utterly changed the international geopolitical symmetry. For trading partners, food is a fundamental part of relative political power — some countries, such as the United States, are simply better endowed with natural resources and agricultural growing conditions. Food has historically been an essential ingredient of power and weaponry in international trade. Countries that are self-sufficient are less likely to be dependent and tend to profit from high levels of food reliance in their trading partners.
 
However, some governments attempt to maintain such power imbalances by resorting to stringent food-safety policies that can arguably be translated into protectionist policies. Canada witnessed this with the international response to mad-cow disease, and Canadian regulators (the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and/or the Pest Management Regulatory Agency) may see the pesticide issue as the next version. But the NAFTA political culture is distinctive. Because of its relative political clout, Washington can casually adopt protectionist regulatory measures and force its trading partners to quietly comply.
 
Food-safety regulations an

Topic(s): 
Rules of Origin & Trade Agreements / Trade Agreements
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
Document Type: 
Email Article