Canada announces political confrontation with Europe to force us to lower our guard on food security. Using CETA-at the time presented as a harmless ‘free trade agreement’ -to attack the rules established in Europe to guard human health and the environment. Apples and wheat the first targets.
Operational ‘on a provisional basis’ since September 2017, CETA has yielded a 6.5 percent increase in exports to Europe in 2018 for Canadian companies. (1) Who are now preparing to move to strong measures, breaking down non-tariff barriers. That is, demolishing EU and member state regulations to guard food safety and environmental protection.
The report of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and CropLife, the association of agrotoxics industries (in 4×4 traction, i.e., Big 4) is clear in the determinations of overseas lobbyists. (2) A 9-point program to break through ‘barriers,’ capitalize on CETA and increase exports in the world’s largest agri-food commodity trading area, the Old Continent precisely.
CETA, the budget that Canadians don’t like
In 2018, after a year of implementing the ‘free trade’ treaty-thanks to lower tariffs-Canada increased exports to Europe significantly. In general terms (+6.5 percent) and on some commodities in particular:
– oats, +493%,
– corn, +96.7%,
– frozen berries, +35.5 percent,
– other agri-food products, +6.5 percent.
It recorded a decline in exports, conversely, on other commodities:
– fresh berries, -33.1 percent (compared with the increase on the corresponding frozen fruits),
– rye, -15%,
– wheat, -4.4 percent (Italians prefer made in Italy and organic),
– other cereals, -5%.
Out of this balance comes the programmatic decision to turn even negative data into positive.
More pesticides for everyone, even in apples
A priority goal, for Canadian lobbies, is to lower the limits of pesticide residues allowed in Europe, which are considerably lower than the levels set across the Atlantic. To the different approach of contaminant limits in food we have already mentioned, with reference to mycotoxins. Food safety rule systems are objectively different(as noted above, including risk management and public recalls). The precautionary principle, on which food law is based in Europe, is not as valuable in North America. Nor is it referred to in any of the toxic treaties negotiated and entered into by Jean-Claude Juncker’s Commission. Neither in CETA, nor in JEFTA, nor in TTIP.
Canadian apples from Nova Scotia are the first casus belli. The report’s authors lament the interruption of exports to Europe due to the European ban on the use of diphenylamine (DPA), a substance used to prolong fruit storage. In Canada, apples are in fact soaked in a solution of water and DPA to ensure that they can be stored at a low temperature for an entire year.
The health risk related to exposure to DPA was re-evaluated in 2008 by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Which concluded that the available data were insufficient to define the toxicological risk to the population related to the consumption of food with a residual limit of 5 ppm. Following this scientific risk assessment, the European Commission ordered a ban on the use of DPA. Therefore defining-as for all pesticides banned in the EU-a maximum threshold of 0.01 ppm (parts per million). This measure went into effect on 2.3.14.
The Canadian authors of the report call the measure unjustified. Stubbornly maintaining the residual limit of diphenylamine on their apples at 5 ppm. They cite the even milder measure provided in the US (10 ppm) to support their argument. And they aspire to use CETA to equalize pesticide limits downward. Removing those considered ‘too strict,’ which from their point of view qualify as unjustified barriers to trade with Europe.
Hard grain, Italy’s faults. COOL
In one of the programmatic points of the report, the ‘Italy problem’ is specifically mentioned. The Bel Paese’s fault would be that in 2017 it prescribedmandatory indication of the origin of semolina and wheat on pasta labels (COOL, Country of Origin Labeling). A protectionist act, according to Canadians, who attribute the ‘blame’ to Coldiretti.
Glyphosate-which Canadian growers also use in the post-harvest stage (as it is banned in the EU)-and information about its health and environmental risks is the subject of further protests by Canadian lobbyists. Who define such news as fake news (!). On closer inspection, however:
1 ) origin labeling of wheat in pasta has already been challenged, by Canada and the US, in the WTO. It is an unenforceable standard, thus lacking binding force, as it was implemented without complying with EU rules on notification of technical standards to Brussels. Information on the origin and provenance of wheat in pasta is still provided, however, on a voluntary basis, in response to Italian consumers’ demands for transparency,
2) The crisis in Canadian wheat exports to Italy is real, from $173 million in 2017 to nearly $93 million in 2018. It was undoubtedly amplified by news about the origin on pasta labels and well-founded concerns toward pesticide residues in grains. But Canadian wheat exports to Italy have been declining for several years. From $557 million in 2014, it went down to $460 in 2015 and $322 in 2016. Italian consumAtors have been learning the value of food sovereignty for at least five years, and no top-down imposition will be able to change this trend,
3) To brand as fake news the widespread fears of Italian consumers of consuming pasta (or lentils) with residues of Monsanto’s herbicide is simply ridiculous. All the more so after several U.S. courts have recognized the serious danger of the world’s best-selling agrotoxin. Not to mention the numerous studies confirming its harmfulness even to the microbiome and bee survival.
Canadian farmers’ associations-instead of promoting the proper use of agrotoxics, in that logic of sustainable agriculture that should animate the entire planet-are instead concerned only with suggesting to farmers the ‘tricks’ of keeping pesticide residues ‘under track’. To this end, the Canadian Cereals Association has launched an ad hoc site, Keeping it Clean. And even, on its institutional website, it threatens retaliation on Canadian imports of‘their high-quality food products, such as Parmigiano Reggiano or Parma Ham.’
Dario Dongo and Marta Strinati
Notes
1) Duty decreases reduced tariffs on durum wheat to 148€/ton, 93€/ton rye and barley wheat
2) See‘CETA issue in focus: opening opportunities for the Canadian crop sector‘, published by Stop TTIP Italia
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
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