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For Immediate Release:Canada’s Oilseed Industry Asks Western Provinces to Join Ontario in Challenging Quebec’s Margarine Colour Restriction70,000
Canola Growers and $6 Billion Oilseed Industry Challenge Protectionist Dairy
Regulation
August 15, 2002 (Winnipeg, Manitoba) - Canada’s oilseed
industry -- canola growers, oilseed crushers and refiners, and makers of
vegetable oil-based products -- have formally requested that Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta join Ontario in challenging a Quebec law that requires
margarine, a leading vegetable oil-based product, sold in that province to be
white in colour. The request for the western provinces to intervene and
support Ontario’s challenge is made under Canada’s Agreement on Internal
Trade. Ontario contends that
Quebec’s colour regulation is a barrier to interprovincial trade, violates the
Agreement on Internal Trade, and should have been repealed by September 1, 1997
according to Quebec’s obligations under the Agreement.
The colour regulation causes economic injury to Ontario margarine
manufacturers who must produce one colour of margarine for Quebec and another,
the standard pale yellow colour, for the rest of Canada. “The request for the western
provinces to join the challenge is part of the Canadian oilseed industry’s
call for a fair and equitable regulatory environment in Canada that does not
discriminate against the oilseed industry and its vegetable-oil based products
for the benefit of the dairy industry and its products,” said Bob Broeska,
President of the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association. “The oilseed industry,
specifically canola growers and seed processors in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta, is adversely affected by regulations that impair the free internal
trade of margarine in order to protect the dairy industry’s markets for
butter,” added Broeska. Nationally, margarine’s share
of the combined butter/margarine market is 67 per cent; whereas in Quebec
margarine’s share of the combined market is only 58 per cent.
Since September 1, 1997, when Quebec was obligated to repeal the colour
regulation as a signatory to the Agreement on Internal Trade, the oilseed and
margarine industries have lost $85 million or $17 million annually at current
consumption levels. This loss will continue until the regulation is repealed. “In Canada, there has been a
history of governments protecting the dairy industry against competition from
margarine primarily produced from Canadian grown canola and other Canadian grown
oilseeds,” said Ross Ravelli, President of the Canadian Canola Growers
Association. “This discrimination
must end. Seventy-thousand Canadian
canola growers are entitled to regulatory equality with dairy farmers as
governments have recognized with the provisions of the Agreement on Internal
Trade,” added Ravelli. Ontario formally requested the
establishment of a dispute resolution panel on August 1, 2002 to hear its
complaint that Quebec’s margarine colour regulation is protectionist,
trade-restrictive and in violation of Quebec’s obligations under the Agreement
on Internal Trade. The panel
hearing will occur in November with a decision rendered in the first quarter of
2003. Should the panel find in
favour of Ontario – that the Quebec margarine colour regulation violates the
Agreement on Internal Trade – Quebec has an obligation to rescind the
offending regulation within three months. The Canadian Oilseed Processors
Association is a federally incorporated non-profit industry association, whose
members include ADM Agri-Industries Ltd., CanAmera
Foods, Canbra Foods and
Cargill Limited. The oilseed
processing industry in Canada provides a $1.2 billion market for seed sale by
farmers and employs 1,200 people in the food manufacturing sector.
The industry’s total direct economic benefit amounts to $3 billion with
a total indirect economic benefit of $2 billion. The 70,000 members of the
Canadian Canola Growers Association, with farms predominantly in Saskatchewan,
Alberta and Manitoba, produce more than five million metric tonnes of canola
annually with a direct and indirect economic benefit of
$3 billion. -- 30 --
For Information: Bob Broeska Provincial Canola Growers Associations: Alberta Canola Producers Association Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association Manitoba Canola Growers Association |
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