FORESTERS FALLS – Tim Tabbert, president of the Renfrew County National Farmers Union said as the first round of talks to renegotiate NAFTA have wound up, organizations from Canada, the US and Mexico are concerned about the possible talks. Despite repeated demands by civil society organizations in all three countries, the governments have refused to open talks to the public or to publish proposed negotiating texts.
All signs point to negotiations designed to increase agribusiness exports and corporate control over the food system, rather than to support fair and sustainable trade and farming systems.
Mr. Tabbert noted Jan Slomp, the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), has recently reported that under NAFTA and its forerunner, the Canada-US FTA, farm input costs have gone up and inflation-adjusted commodity prices have dropped, yet the farmer’s share of the grocery dollar is smaller.
“We export more, but imports have increased faster, which means our share of our own domestic market is actually shrinking,” Mr. Slomp said.
Farms in Renfrew County are experiencing this same decline, Mr. Tabbert said.
Jim Goodman, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and member of the National Family Farm Coalition agreed.
“Federal and state governments and Land Grant Universities, at the behest of the dairy industry, have done all they can to encourage the US dairy farmers to produce more milk, never questioning how much milk might be too much or how the subsequent cheap prices affect farmers.
“We cannot expect Canada, at the expense of their dairy farmers, to bail us out,” Mr. Goodman said, adding, “Farmers, whether US or Canadian, are nothing more than part of the machine to the industry and NAFTA. That’s the way free trade works.”
Mr. Tabbert added, the first round of talks in Washington concluded with a media statement.
“There is a great deal of work to be done in order to upgrade this NAFTA deal.”
The leaders of the NFU (Canada) and farm organizations from the US and Mexico continue to work to send a strong message, he said.
“The message is that the goal of the NAFTA deal should be to restore national sovereignty over food and farm policy to support local farming communities.
“The Canadian supply management is part of that farm policy and food sovereignty and must not be negotiated,” Mr. Tabbert concluded.
