Canada to pay farmers for any losses under trade deal -minister

By Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Canadian farmers
will receive government compensation for any losses resulting
from a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, the country's
agriculture minister said on Wednesday in a discussion about the
nation's protected farm sectors.
The United States, New Zealand and Australia want Canada to
start dismantling a system of supply and import controls over
dairy, poultry and eggs that keep domestic prices high and
foreign producers at bay.
Trade ministers from 12 countries are currently meeting in
Atlanta in a bid to close the TPP deal, which seeks to cut trade
barriers and set common standards for 40 percent of the world
economy.
Unhappy Canadian dairy farmers parked dozens of tractors in
central Ottawa and walked their cows down the main street
opposite Parliament on Tuesday to protest trade talks that they
said could cripple them.
Conservative Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, speaking in a
debate ahead of Canada's Oct. 19 federal election, said
"everything starts out on the (negotiating) table," including
the supply-managed sectors.
A reelected Conservative government will maintain "the
pillars of supply management," Ritz said, but he did not rule
out allowing more imports as Canada did in an earlier free trade
agreement with Europe.
"If there is loss on your farm, (or) the processing side,
you will be compensated," Ritz said in the debate in Ottawa
organized by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, an
organization of farm groups.
The governing Conservatives are in a tight three-way race
with the Liberal and New Democratic parties (NDP). The dairy
lobby is politically influential, with most of its farmers
living in Quebec and Ontario, two provinces that are key to
winning the election.
While eastern Canadian farmers of supply-managed products
fear the impact of TPP, the majority who sell to the open
market, especially in the West, desperately want a deal.
Producers of grain, oilseeds, beef and pork say it's critical to
join TPP to boost access to foreign markets, particularly Japan.
NDP candidate Malcolm Allen said during the Ottawa debate
that putting all issues on the table is "the way you lose"
negotiations. An NDP government would keep supply managed
sectors "whole," but it was not clear if he meant that it would
rule out any concessions.
"One (industry) is going to be a real loser and it certainly
looks like it will be supply management this time," Allen said.