~ freelance journalist

Editorialists and business page columnists at the major newspapers have been working themselves into a frenzy recently over that great insidious farmer plot called supply management.

Their free market indignation leads them to hope that either the Canada-Europe free trade talks or negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership will force Canada to pull the plug on the dairy and poultry boards. They offer sophomoric arguments to justify their positions. They flay at the boards as if they were the biggest issue in the trade arena.

Ottawa trade guru Peter Clark thrives on the details of trade negotiations and his recent column for the online news operation iPoliticsa.ca should be required reading for the overheated commentators.

He says the potential impact of the trade deals on culture as well as health and education services, pharma patents and intellectual property regulation are what we should really be paying attention to.

From all accounts, Europe’s interest in supply management extends to increased access for French cheese. On the Pacific side, it’s New Zealand that’s cranked up about Canadian marketing boards.

Clark’s thesis is that once Japan decided it wanted to joint the TPP negotiations, Canada knew it had to as well. President Obama’s invitation just made it easier to accept a place at the table.

“Canada cannot allow Japan, its fourth most important merchandise export market, to become another Korea, with the U.S. inside the tent enjoying discriminatory preferences and eroding Canada’s market position.

Including Japan gives the TPP — which had been a relatively underwhelming negotiation between the US and a collection of lesser lights — the potential to be a big bang in Asia-Pacific trade and economic integration.

“Japan would give the TPP critical mass and credibility it does not have without it. Adding Canada and Mexico would also significantly enhance TPP’s importance. But without Japan, the TPP is a damp squib.”

Clark argues that it could be to Canada’s advantage to strike an FTA with Japan and forgo the unworkable TPP because it already has deals with the main players in the region. A TPP agreement could also have a lot of impact on NAFTA, Clark notes.

Our commentators should focus on the points Clark makes in his column. As important as supply management is to some farmers and a few editorialists, it’s small potatoes in the Europe and Pacific trade talks.

As well, Japan and the U.S. have big farm issues—rice, sugar and dairy—that they won’t be negotiating away any time soon. So Canada will hardly be a pariah for protecting marketing boards.