OTTAWA — The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the biggest trade deal in history. The 12-country trade deal covers 40 per cent of the world’s economy and allows some new market access, while giving some up. Here’s what was being said in the few days after the TPP was signed on Oct. 4.
“While Liberal leader Justin Trudeau will stop at nothing to paint Harper as a bad economic manager, not even he could come out against this . . . This has been an election all about the economy, and Harper has just delivered a whopping boost for that file.”
— Toronto Sun editorial
“It’s not all good news. The aspect of the deal Harper was most eager to highlight, the all-but-total retention of Canada’s wretched system of supply management in dairy, eggs, and poultry, is in fact its major failing.”
— National Post
“It’s a gain, not a loss. The TPP appears to involve a limited cost for a small number of farmers, and a small benefit for millions of Canadian consumers. We’d call that a net positive. This isn’t a radically transformative deal. It isn’t a perfect deal. But in balance it appears to be a good deal . . .’
— Globe and Mail
“We are encouraged to see the Canadian government has taken steps in announcing programs aimed at mitigating the negative repercussions to producers by means of compensation.”
— Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett
“We don’t like to give up any market access but in the context of the demands and the pressures we think the government did a good job effectively defending (dairy farmers from) these significant threats.”
— Dairy Farmers of Ontario communications director Graham Lloyd
“Let me be clear. The way I see it, those who were watching and expecting the end of supply management, are now being forced to admit that supply management is here to stay.”
— Dairy Farmers of Canada president Wally Smith
“While Chicken Farmers of Canada is disappointed with the additional access that Canada had to concede to secure a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, we recognize that this historic TPP agreement is seen as an important benefit to the Canadian economy for years to come.”
— Chicken Farmers of Canada
“We are confident that our industry’s resiliency and growth will lessen the impact on the farmers we represent.”
— Egg Farmers of Canada
“It secures Canada’s ability to export pork to Japan, one of our most important markets to which we sell roughly a billion dollars of pork annually. The TPP agreement provides important export growth potential which will encourage Canada’s 7,000 pork farmers to invest in their production facilities and to create new job opportunities for Canadians both on and off the farm.”
— Canadian Pork Council chair Rick Bergmann
“Under the deal reached today, Canada could double or triple its annual beef exports to Japan to nearly $300 million.”
— Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Dave Solverson
“If elected, Canada will not be part of an agreement that removes 20,000 jobs.”
— NDP leader Thomas Mulcair
“The TPP expands opportunities for grain export to important and growing markets, particularly in Southeast Asia. Japan is our largest market for food-grade soybeans, and countries like Malaysia and Vietnam have fast-growing GDPs and are major markets for both food-grade and crush soybeans. Improved access is a great success for our farmer-members.”
— Grain Farmers of Ontario chair Mark Brock
“The federal government’s promise of a $1.5 billion compensation package for loss of quota value over 10 years seems unnecessarily high. This suggests that the intent is to completely dismantle dairy supply management.”
— NFU president Jan Slomp
