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WTO NEGOCIATIONS AND SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

DAIRY, POULTRY AND EGG FARMERS DELIGHTED WITH THE MOTION OF SUPPORT BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Longueuil, November 22, 2005 - It was with great satisfaction that the representatives of GO5 Coalition for a Fair Farming Model, Supply Management greeted the unanimous House of Commons motion calling for a stronger mandate for Canada's negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) so that they obtain the maintenance of supply management at the end of the negotiations. The motion specifies that they must ensure that producers under supply management in Canada will not be subject to tariff reductions and additional access to their markets.

"Canada already allows considerably more access to its egg, poultry and dairy markets than European and American agricultural powers. It does not have to offer more when the proposals tabled at the WTO by these powers will maintain their existing subsidies intact and keep their markets closed," said Laurent Pellerin, President of the Union des producteurs agricoles and spokesman of GO5 Coalition for a Fair Farming Model, Supply Management.

This motion was presented today in the run-up to a major Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Cong in December, in connection with the WTO negotiations on agriculture. Last week, the Quebec National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion presented by Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Minister Laurent Lessard, with the support of the opposition parties, calling on the federal government to strengthen the mandate of its negotiators in order to preserve supply management.

The purpose of supply management is to plan production to match market requirements and assure consumers of a regular supply of a wide variety of quality local products, at good prices. This fair model allows farmers to obtain a fair price, without subsidies, for their products and maintains human-scale farms in every region of Quebec, thus favouring local food production and preventing the dumping of surpluses on the international market.

"Nobody is fooled. Everyone knows that despite their fine words, the Americans and Europeans will continue to pay their farmers huge subsidies. It would be totally unfair to ask our producers to give more access to their domestic markets when the United States and the European Union refuse to concede real access to their markets and continue to dump their subsidized products on other countries' markets," Mr. Pellerin added.

"The model developed by producers under supply management is fair for consumers, farmers, processors, taxpayers and the government because it does not require subsidies. It does not cause distortion on the world market and is, on the contrary, a solution for the development of local agriculture in the poor countries of the world. Canada must assume leadership at the WTO negotiations not only to preserve supply management but also to promote it to its partners," concluded the GO5 Coalition's spokesman.

Commodities under supply management - milk, chickens, turkeys, hatching eggs and table eggs - account for nearly 40% of annual Quebec farm revenues, namely $2.3 billion, and generate more than 60,000 direct and indirect jobs.

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