Spring
2016
grainswest.com
6
All forone
COMMONGROUNDONMRLSNEEDED
IT’S NOT ALWAYS EASY TO WORK
on a united front on important issues.
There’s typically history and many com-
plexities at play, such as egos, policies
and politics.
In a global marketplace that affords
countries the ability to ship products
around the world, regardless of bor-
ders, all nations have made new trading
partners and political friends that would
have seemed impossible a generation or
two ago.
With new friends come new rules, and
few rules have caused more challenges
than countries’ maximum residue limits
(MRLs) and how they work in conjunc-
tion with our own. Canada has MRLs
set for everything from glyphosate to
chlormequat, and efforts are ongoing
to make sure that farmers are in the
know about safe use requirements and
that they stay on-label when it comes to
application. However, not all countries
have the same MRLs. At best, it can
make operations confusing; at worst,
it can mean rejected grain at another
country’s border. While Canada has an
MRL set for chlormequat chloride, or
Manipulator, the United States does not.
This means your wheat grown with Ma-
nipulator won’t be able to enter the U.S.
market if there are any traces of chemical
residue, since no MRL means the default
residue limit is zero parts per million.
That’s a shame given the U.S. is our next-
door neighbour. Now, our high-quality
products need to find a home elsewhere,
increasing transportation costs.
Countries should work to adopt similar
or even identical MRL thresholds in or-
der to give farmers better export oppor-
tunities and streamline export logistics.
Large international trade deals, such as
the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the
Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic
and Trade Agreement, have been signed,
but will need to be ratified in parliaments
all over the world before they come into
effect. As tariff barriers are decreased
through international agreements,
non-tariff trade barriers like MRLs tend
to increase. That’s why it’s more impor-
tant than ever for Canada to be on high
alert on behalf of its farmers. Beyond
that, however, common ground will need
to be established on MRLs. If not, devel-
oping new and compliant chemistry for
farmers to utilize will quickly become an
urgent priority around the world. Better
yet, countries can create a common play-
book for the MRLs on commonly used
agro-chemicals.
With the TPP being signed, a sanitary
and phyto-sanitary (SPS) committee will
also be struck among the 12 participating
nations. The intent is to develop common
practices and standards related to things
like storage of grain and use of disease
free seed to avoid the formation of
mycotoxins. With any luck, the TPP will
further serve as a catalyst for a future
consensus on MRLs, SPS and Low Level
Presence (LLP) of GM crops.
In the interim, farmers can use Keep
it Clean, a valuable online resource, to
ensure they are taking the right steps for
crops to be accepted upon delivery. We’re
an exporting nation and it’s crucial that
the entire value chain is working in the
best interests of Canadian farmers to
help ensure uninterrupted market access
for the 39 million tonnes of homegrown
crops that leave our ports annually.
For more information on what you can
do on your farm to ensure MRLs don’t af-
fect your crops, visit keepingitclean.ca.
BY TREVOR BACQUE
EDITOR’S
MESSAGE
FOR HEALTHY TRADE
