Sometimes it’s best to think back before making changes. Remember the first FTA agreement? Our prime minister at the time was a good friend of the U.S. president (we thought) and if Canada gave up the very successful U.S.-Canada auto pact, and some of our dairy access to the U.S., we would get a better U.S.-Canada auto deal and freer trade. Since then, 70 per cent of our cars come from off shore, all our heavy truck manufacturing has moved south and almost all of our farm machinery manufacturing has moved either south or to Europe and Asia. There was even an idea in there to give up “pickle production” for computers!
At the time, I remember the president of the Quebec farmers union holding up an empty pickle jar and saying that the farmers only got a few cents for the cucumbers in the pickles, but the jar of pickles sold for a couple dollars. Then he asked, “How much is that empty jar worth”? On Aug. 9 we were informed on TV that our supplier of pickles has all the ingredients produced in Canada but pickled and put in jars in the U.S. and is subject to tariffs going both ways. How did this happen? Only a few years ago, our mothers and grandmothers made all our pickles in the kitchens at home. Mrs. McCleary made the best dill pickles I ever ate, and Mrs. Brown made the best icicle pickles in the county. Pickle production is not rocket science.
More than a decade ago, The U.S. was charging a tariff on Canadian softwood lumber. Canada protested to the court at the GATT. Canada won the challenge, and the U.S. was supposed to repay all the tariffs to Canada. The U.S. challenged the GATT decision, but Canada won that U.S. challenge and the U.S. had to repay the tariff. Then there was a federal election before the U.S. paid the illegal tariff. The Federal government changed in that election, and the new Canadian government did not collect back the illegal GATT tariff. The new Canadian government also gave the U.S. the right to continue charging the tariff! As a result, B.C., Quebec, and New Brunswick had to shut down many sawmills and forest operations. In Pontiac alone, we lost 14 sawmills! The U.S. is now increasing the tariff on softwood lumber. What does that prime minister who didn’t hold the U.S. responsible to repay that tariff and stop charging Canada for future tariffs on softwood lumber have to say?
The U.S. and some other very short-term thinking economists are demanding that Canada give up our supply management system of marketing dairy, poultry, and eggs. I have already written about how that decision went in Europe with farmers going broke, farm suicides skyrocketing, consumer grocery prices going up instead of down, and grocery chains making record profits. New Zealand also gave up their supply management system several years ago. Because in New Zealand, many farmers market their milk through the world’s largest farmer owned co-op (Fonterra), dairy farmers thought that their co-op could look after them. Well, Fonterra would have gone broke too except that they had built milk plants in other countries (even in Russia) and the profits in other countries saved Fonterra.
Since dropping their quota system, average dairy farms in New Zealand have risen in size to 700 cows each, but the majority of dairy farms have quit completely, new young dairy farmers are very scarce, in farming communities, schools and businesses have closed and entire towns have become ghost towns! Remember that the weather in New Zealand is much warmer than in Canada and dairy farms don’t need those large expensive barns or have to store winter feed, but young farmers are still very reluctant to invest in dairy with no assurance that milk prices will be stable.
New Zealand dairy exports have been dropping with no sign of increasing again. Meanwhile in Canada, our Canadian dairy farmers have continued to produce a steady supply of safe, dairy products that are the envy of the world, and we maintain our young farmers in the industry with viable towns to raise a family in.
We have also seen China overtake the U.S. in agricultural research several years ago. China has recently developed an autonomous large (400 HP) tractor that can work both day and night (GPS) working thousands of acres per day. I, like many farmers in our county, have worked thousands of acres but never tilled a thousand acres without breaking some part (a plow point, a disc bearing, a hydraulic line on a tractor, a flat tire on the cultivator, a chain on the seed drill, or something). And if I didn’t notice it, within seconds, a thousand dollars worth of damage could be done that that autonomous tractor might never see. China is a very large polluter, but has made the largest advancements in reducing carbon emissions, producing renewable energy, reducing its need for oil, and making the most advancements in electric vehicles of any country in the world. Not only have they bought out Tesla motors and now have the largest GM plant in the world, but now their own electric car outsells Tesla two to one. Some of GM’s best-selling cars are now produced in China. President Trump thinks he can force companies to return to the U.S. to produce autos etc. but Asia can build a car for half the price than North America can. Trump’s pipe dream will never happen.
We are witnessing firsthand what the world has noticed since biblical times when the rich got greedier and the poor got poorer. Let’s all pray that that will stop. Look out for your neighbour and be good to the kids, they grow up to be real people some day, and they don’t forget.
