lateral with plurilateral outcomes. What
we mean by that is one that provides and
creates a level playing field. If Canada
had not been part of the agreement, we
would have fallen behind. Or if our com-
petitors, namely the U.S. and Australia,
in the TPP agreement had gotten prefer-
ential access, then Canada would be at a
disadvantage.
GW:
How important is the TPP For
CAFTA members? What about the Ca-
nadian agriculture industry in general?
CC:
It is huge. It is very significant. The
fact that we are, that Canada is, in the
TPP is a big deal. Now that we have the
details, we are assessing the quality of the
agreement. What we’re saying is we wel-
come the fact that Canada is part of the
agreement and we know that the TPP will
increase exports of agri-food products.
In principle, this new trade deal means
access to key growing markets in the
Asia-Pacific region—a region that current-
ly absorbs 65 per cent of our exports, so it’s
a very big region and very important that
we remain [part of] that trading block.
GW:
In general, what was the mood
around the table like during the Atlanta
round of the TPP talks?
CC:
In Atlanta, the mood was very differ-
ent from every previous round. This time
around we saw that the negotiators from
all countries were very, very, very busy.
They’ve always been busy but this time
around it was just different. You could tell
that in Maui, which was the round that
took place late July, early August, there
was a sense of optimism, a lot of hard
work and a really strong resolve to con-
clude, and in Atlanta the same resolve to
conclude but this time around you could
… tell that it was not easy.
GW:
What’s it like trying to balance the
interests of different agriculture sectors
and groups represented by your mem-
bers? Were there ever any conflicts?
CC:
I like to say it’s a very diverse group,
but with a single voice when it comes to
the need for trade, in a way that makes
the mandate of the organization very
clear. It’s really focused on trade, and the
position of CAFTA was to seek a high-level
agreement, a high-quality agreement, with
plurilateral outcomes that create the level
playing field.
GW:
What’s a day in the life like during
a round of trade talks?
CC:
It depends. Earlier on, at other
rounds (because this last particular
round was very unique in itself) we were
there to meet regularly with negotiators,
but we were also there to exchange
information with our counterparts from
other countries. We formed alliances and
issued joint statements with our counter-
parts from the U.S., Australia and New
Zealand.
GW:
How does it feel to finally have a
TPP agreement?
CC:
It’s really one check box checked, I
would say. Once the details were made
public, we still had a huge amount of work
to do. There’s going to be a number of new-
er MPs that will need to understand what
is in the agreement, what’s in it for us, so
there’s going to be a lot of advocacy and
outreach that will need to take place before
this agreement can be implemented.
GW:
Are there any other important
trade deals on the horizon for Canada?
CC:
While [CAFTA] continues to seek
free- and fair-trade access to key markets,
we’ve got ahead of us two huge free-trade
agreements, the CETA (Comprehensive
and Economic Trade Agreement) with Eu-
rope and the TPP that need to be ratified
and implemented.
Winter
2016
Grains
West
18
