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For Immediate Release: Western Provinces Challenge Ontario under Agreement on Internal Trade for Failure to Eliminate Agricultural And Food Trade Barriers Federal
Government asked to Support Western Provinces May
26, 2004 (Toronto, ON) – The Vegetable Oil Industry of Canada applauds the
governments of Alberta and British Columbia for their formal challenge of
Ontario legislation designed to protect the revenues of Ontario’s dairy
producers at the expense of consumers and Canada’s canola and soybean growers. Alberta and B.C., with
Saskatchewan intervening to support the challenge, will ask a dispute resolution
panel in September 2004 to find that Ontario should immediately repeal its
Edible Oil Products Act (EOPA). The
EOPA, which prohibits the sale of vegetable oil-based alternatives to dairy
products widely available throughout the world, was identified as an internal
trade barrier in 1997. In 2001, a federal, provincial and territorial working group
recommended its repeal. Since then,
legislation to repeal the EOPA, tabled under the Food Safety and Quality Act in
December 2001, has been delayed three times. “It seems inappropriate for
the Ontario government to maintain legislation solely to protect the revenues of
one farm group, dairy producers, at the expense of other farm groups,” said
Ross Ravelli, President of the Canadian Canola Growers Association.
“Furthermore, Ontario is denying consumers products that may enable
them to reduce their consumption of saturated fat, a key recommendation of the
World Health Organization’s recently published report Diet, Nutrition and the
Prevention of Chronic Diseases.” In
addition to a finding that Ontario should immediately repeal its EOPA, B.C. and
Alberta will ask the panel to find that Ontario should not introduce any new
measures to regulate these products. The
panel will also be asked to recommend that findings of the federal, provincial
and territorial working group be immediately implemented: “…provinces
should deregulate products that imitate or resemble dairy products, whether or
not they contain dairy ingredients and defer to existing federal regulatory
processes….” Should
the panel find in Alberta’s and B.C.’s favour, Ontario would have 60 days to
comply with the findings. Should
Ontario not comply with a ruling against it, Alberta and B.C. are entitled to
impose retaliatory restrictions on the Ontario dairy industry or on other
sectors of Ontario’s economy. “Ontario’s
soybean industry has been working hard to develop new products to meet consumer
demands for healthy foods,” said Bill Allison, Chair of Ontario Soybean
Growers. “Soybean producers are extremely disappointed that the provincial
government has, for the third time, delayed the repeal of the Edible Oil
Products Act. Not only are Ontario
farmers being denied access to a new market opportunity, but consumers in
Ontario can’t buy a wide range of food products that have been shown to reduce
heart disease in other countries, by replacing saturated fats with healthier
vegetable oils.” The Vegetable Oil Industry of
Canada has also asked the federal government to intervene, supporting Alberta
and B.C., in order “… to protect the integrity of Canada’s national
regulatory system and the interests of Canadian consumers.”
In a letter to the federal Minister of Industry, VOIC stated that
interprovincial trade is an area “…for which the federal government has a
constitutional responsibility….” and that the federal government should
intervene “…to ensure federal regulations and the federal government’s
ability to administer them is not misrepresented or misinterpreted before the
panel.” The Vegetable Oil Industry of
Canada has requested that Manitoba intervene in the panel process as well. As recently as February 2004,
Premiers reaffirmed their commitment to the Agreement on Internal Trade with the
formation of the Council of the Federation and the development of an internal
trade work plan under that initiative. On
December 5, 2003 Premier McGuinty was quoted in the Toronto Star as saying:
“One of the things I’m very interested in doing is reducing trade barriers
between provinces and territories so that we can strengthen the economic
union.” VOIC (Vegetable Oil Industry of Canada) is an industry group representing 75,000 oilseed growers across Canada, oilseed processors and suppliers of fats and oils to the food industry, and makers of oilseed-based food products, such as margarine, cooking oil, salad dressing, mayonnaise and dessert toppings. Members include the Canadian Canola Growers Association, the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association, Archer Daniel Midland Agri-Industries Ltd., Bunge Canada, Canbra Foods, Cargill Limited, AarhusKarlshamn US and Canada, Loders Croklaan, Unilever Canada and Rich Products Corporation. -- 30 -- For Information: Sean McPhee |
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