Call Americans' bluff in potato export crisis, say Conservatives

It's time to start shipping P.E.I. potatoes back to the mainland U.S., says MP John Barlow, agriculture critic for the Conservative Party.

Barlow was on P.E.I. over the weekend talking to Island farmers, who expressed frustration and "desperation," he said. 

"They were expecting to hear some news on March 10. That date has come and gone with no new news."

At the end of November the Canadian Food Inspection Agency banned the export of P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. following the detection of potato wart in two fields.

Potato wart is a serious agricultural pest, but not a danger to human health. It has been known to be present on P.E.I. since 2000, but a management plan developed with the U.S. kept trade open for 20 years, until last fall.

Exports to Puerto Rico were opened up last month, but the U.S. mainland remains closed.

Farmers are facing critical decisions about spring planting right now, said Barlow. They don't know whether to plant in the hopes that the border will reopen or not.

The federal government's position is that it ordered the border closure because the American government was threatening to act on its own, and an American order would be more difficult to reverse.

"Our push to [Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau] is remove that suspension. Remove the ministerial order. Call the Americans' bluff," said Barlow.

"Let's see what's going to happen at this point. We've got nothing left to lose."

The P.E.I. Potato Board's position has always been that the government shouldn't have stopped issuing export certificates, said general manager Greg Donald.

He said the federal government hasn't presented any justification for why talks with the U.S. are taking so long, and it should start re-issuing certificates "right away."

"I think it's safe to say that the minister's plan has failed. She has contended right from the beginning that this needs to be discussed in a technical [level] ...Those discussions haven't yielded any new information," he said.

"It's a trade issue. And they're being intimidated by the U.S. and they're not dealing with them the way they need to be dealt with."

If the Americans do move against P.E.I. potatoes, Canada can then turn to dispute resolution protocols in trade agreements, Barlow said.

"Let's also look at reciprocal bans on other American products, including American products being imported into Canada that also have quarantinable pests, but for some reason we're accepting those into Canada," he said.

Barlow said he wanted to meet with Island farmers before questioning Bibeau at the Commons agriculture committee Monday.

At that committee meeting, Bibeau insisted that continuing with technical discussions about the safety of P.E.I. potatoes was the best option.

"We are in constant discussions with them. I am in communication with [Agriculture] Secretary [Tom] Vilsac directly and we see progress," she said.

"We got it for Puerto Rico. I'm confident we will reach it for the mainland soon."

Closing down technical discussions to enter into a trade challenge would mean giving up hope for the coming season, she said, because any such challenge would take too long to resolve.