OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said on Friday it had "serious concerns" about parts of a draft deal presented by World Trade Organization officials earlier in the day in a bid to rescue struggling talks on global farm trade.
International Trade Minister Jim Peterson said Canada was worried about language that could affect the way the Canadian Wheat Board functions.
Dairy, egg and poultry farmers, whose production is limited under marketing agreements and is also protected by import tariffs, said they feared the WTO draft's call for tariff cuts could devastate their industries.
"The draft framework strongly supports many of Canada's key objectives," Peterson said, adding that a key part of any WTO deal was the section on agriculture.
"Canada does however have serious concerns about other parts of the framework, such as proposed new disciplines on exporting state trading enterprises and some aspects of proposed approaches on market access and domestic support," he told reporters on a conference call.
The United States and the European Union contend the Wheat Board's monopoly on western Canadian grain sales and a federal guarantee of deficit protection give the marketing agency unfair pricing power.
"(We are) committed to defending the ability of Canadians to operate orderly marketing systems such as supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board. We will continue to press our views strongly on these issues," said Peterson.
Under the supply management system, dairy, poultry and egg farmers work collectively to match their output with domestic demand. They receive a price that is administered under an agreement between producers and various processing industries.
This system is made possible by import controls which include tariffs combined with approximately 5 percent levels of tariff-free market access for other countries.
The Dairy Farmers of Canada association said it was alarmed that the draft WTO text called for considerable tariff cuts and substantial increases in market access.
"This poses a real danger to Canadian farmers by threatening their ability to make a living in their chosen field, and all but eliminating their ability to receive fair prices for the food they grow," it said in a statement.
"The dairy, poultry and egg industries are calling on the Canadian government to understand these risks and to take any and all measures to create fair trade rules that are transparent and binding."
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