U.S. dairy groups urge Trump to set his sights on Canadian policies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSome new tariff classifications were created to ensure foods destined for retail sale don’t slip through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThe new cuts took hold\u00a0without any fanfare.<\/p>\n
One food manufacturer contacted by CBC News to comment on the potential savings\u00a0hadn’t even heard about it yet.<\/p>\n
But the Food Consumer Products of Canada, the largest industry group representing\u00a0familiar brands like Campbell’s, Kellogg’s and Kraft, has been lobbying for a change like this for several years.<\/p>\n
“This is a really positive step,” said Carla\u00a0Ventin, the association’s vice-president of federal government affairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Moving in a different direction’<\/h2>\n
The industry’s cause is\u00a0fashionable now, with the chair of Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s\u00a0economic advisory panel, Dominic Barton,\u00a0touting the\u00a0growth potential of the Canadian agri-food industry as international food demand\u00a0grows.<\/p>\n
![\"Dominic](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/f22f4_dominic-barton-economy-20160520.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Dominic Barton chairs federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s economic advisory committee. In a 2016 interview with The Canadian Press, he said Canada has all the ingredients to build ‘global champions’ in its agri-food industries. (Paul Chiasson\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
Cutting these tariffs in a\u00a0more protectionist international trade climate \u2014 with the United Kingdom’s\u00a0Brexit\u00a0split from the European Union’s single market looming and an\u00a0incoming U.S. administration musing about what tariff\u00a0walls it might erect to protect domestic industries\u00a0\u2014 is even more interesting.<\/p>\n
“This government is moving in a different direction,” Ventin said. It’s recognized\u00a0that\u00a0North American manufacturing is\u00a0highly integrated.<\/p>\n
“Products cross back and forth across the border,” she said. “We don’t grow everything in Canada. We don’t process everything in Canada.”<\/p>\n
No banana or pineapple trees grow here. There’s no such thing as Canadian-grown cocoa. Need papaya for your chutney? That comes from somewhere else.<\/p>\n
Common spices and seasonings like black pepper, nutmeg and\u00a0cinnamon now enter tariff-free.<\/p>\n
Threat to domestic growers?<\/h2>\n
The tariff list also includes produce that does grow in Canada.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Horticultural Council, which represents domestic growers, says it wasn’t notified of last spring’s consultation.<\/p>\n
“At the moment, we can’t say with certainty how much of an impact the regulation will have on our members,” said a statement from its president, Keith Kuhl.<\/p>\n
Food processors don’t see a serious risk of\u00a0domestic ingredients being\u00a0displaced.<\/p>\n
“Supply chains with companies\u00a0are unique and well-established. They don’t change overnight,” Ventin said, citing Canadian food safety and environmental standards and transport costs as reasons why Canadian manufacturers buy local if\u00a0they can.<\/p>\n
“A great deal of thought went into which tariff items \u2026 will be removed,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"FOOD](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/f22f4_food-oreo-centenary-20120229.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Food processors like this cookie factory in Montreal employ over 300,000 people across Canada. (Ryan Remiorz\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
But crops sometimes fail. International\u00a0suppliers\u00a0are sometimes the only alternative.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure how much it will save,” said Chris Kyte, the president of the Food Processors of Canada, which represents about 100 Canadian-owned companies that make things like frozen entrees, pizza and beverages.<\/p>\n
“It’s one step to becoming more competitive,” he said.\u00a0“While it might be a 10 per cent or a 20 per cent tariff, and it might not be a large ingredient, every little bit helps, right?”<\/p>\n
Particularly in a tight-margin business like the food industry.<\/p>\n
“What I find gratifying is that the government recognizes that food manufacturing is important,” Kyte\u00a0said. “You think of the way they fawn over car companies. They would have gotten this a long time ago.”<\/p>\n
Large employer<\/h2>\n
Food manufacturing employs about 300,000 Canadians nationally \u2014\u00a0not only in large, urban\u00a0enterprises but also in small, local facilities\u00a0closer to\u00a0farm suppliers.<\/p>\n
“It’s the largest employer in rural Canada and we do a large export business,” Kyte said.<\/p>\n
The government’s move\u00a0levels the playing field.<\/p>\n
“In the United States they got rid of tariffs on [food ingredient]\u00a0inputs a long time ago,” he said. “Our government’s really getting around to it today.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the incoming Trump administration talks about piling on new tariffs to discourage imports and protect American jobs, the Canadian government quietly moved\u00a0in the opposite direction over the holidays:\u00a0eliminating tariffs.\u00a0 Why? To support Canadian jobs. A customs tariff order published Dec. 28 in the Canada Gazette describes how roughly 200 different tariffs on imported food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-63953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}