The Federal Conservative's Associate Ag Critic John Barlow says the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CP-TPP) trade agreement may not be the deal the Liberals made it out to be.
He notes Canada's dairy and poultry farmers are frustrated with additional market access granted to CP-TPP partners for Canadian supply managed sectors.
"What raises a lot of alarm bells in supply management is, if you've made these concessions in TPP, what are you going to do to NAFTA? Because the Americans are going to see the Liberals waffled on the TPP, maybe there is an opportunity for them to make further concessions when it comes to NAFTA."
Barlow says the agreement no longer includes the United States, meaning the Liberals should have reduced market access, not increased it.
"When we (the Conservatives) were in government, and we initially negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we were able to come in agreement with our diary and chicken farmers on a compensation package, which tied in TPP and CETA, the European Free Trade Agreement as well, which was a substantial compensation package tied to if the supply managed industry was able to show that they were negatively impacted by these trade agreements."
Source : Steinbachonline