The United States has put countervailing duties on fresh mushrooms grown in Canada following a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation which the Canadian industry has called “deeply flawed.”
The change, posted in the federal register on Monday, will slap most fresh mushrooms with tariffs of 2.84 per cent.
Two companies received separate duties: Champ’s Fresh Farms Inc. was hit with a tariff rate of 1.62 per cent and Farmers’ Fresh Mushrooms Inc. was hit with a tariff rate of 4.97 per cent.
Separate anti-dumping duties are expected to be added later this month.
The preliminary Commerce investigation said Canadian mushroom producers received unfair government subsidies.
Mushrooms Canada CEO Ryan Koeslag said last week that Canadian growers haven’t engaged in unfair trade practices and producers are not receiving special treatment.
In a news release, Koeslag said the Commerce department’s justification is linked to mainstream agricultural tax treatment, including provincial sales tax exemptions available to farmers generally.
“Treating broad-based agricultural tax measures as unfair subsidies is contrary to common sense and unfairly penalizes Canadian mushroom growers for participating in programs available across the agricultural sector in any number of countries,” Koeslag said.
Mushrooms Canada said under U.S. trade law, a subsidy must meet specific legal requirements before it can be countervailed and the group does not believe those requirements have been met.
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