The Canadian Pork Council is disappointed with the United Kingdom’s (UK) misleading positioning on trade issues, the organization said in a release on Monday.
The Government of Canada’s acceptance of UK restrictions on access to products in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreements “is a further indication our negotiators tie one hand behind their backs as they pursue rules-based trade,” the group shared.
“Rules-based free trade requires both sides agree to follow the rules, and in this case, the United Kingdom is not, and has no intention of doing so,” CPC chair Rene Roy said in a release. “We need to have a more realistic view of our trading partners and stop expecting other countries to have our best interests at heart.”
The UK needed this deal more than Canada did, Roy explained.
“Yet, we gave more than we needed to allow them access to a global market,” he said. “We would be happy to work with the Government of Canada to help our negotiators get better at developing non-tariff trade barriers as we need to retaliate against unfair partners.”
Even worse, Roy pointed out that the UK has made deliberate misleading statements about Canadian pork.
“We do not use added growth hormones in Canadian pork,” Roy clarified. “Our food inspection and safety system is second to none, and in fact, is superior to the United Kingdom’s. The Government of Canada must defend its system more aggressively to keep falsehoods from being repeated by our trading partners.”
Roy emphasized that this trade agreement does not improve trade in the agriculture sector between Canada and the UK. He urges government leaders to do more work before its ratified.
“There’s still time – it has not passed Parliamentary approval, so we can figure this out before we’ve signed a bad deal,” he said in a release.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
