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8 THE RURAL VOICE
UNEXPECTED
SUPPORT
A few months ago I urged supply
managed boards to do what the pork
board did and solicit the views of their
members on ways to improve the sys-
tem. I was taken to task by a local milk
committeeman who apparently can't
read. His letter confirmed what I had
not believed when a producer told me
that it is useless to go to milk commit-
tee meetings because the committee
doesn't listen.
This committeeman couldn't see
where the milk board could possibly
improve and accused me of attacking
supply management (s.m.). I have
never attacked the principle of s.m.,
only sometimes its practices. Who
doesn't remember the furore when an
Eastern Ontario processor practically
hi -jacked milk trucks to stay in
business?
Not only s.m. boards are guilty. We
saw on W5 on CTV how a non-s.m.
board, a western wheat pool, does the
same thing by preventing a producer
from exporting his grain to the U.S.
The pork board, of which I was a
member at the time, and I plead guilty,
also prevented one of their members
from exporting hogs to the U.S. The
present board only found a solution by
listening to its members through a
summer -long series of hearings and that
is what I proposed for s.m. boards.
Recently I got support for this view
from an unexpected source — Bill
Sherwood, the chairman of the Dairy
Bureau of Canada, no less. He said, as
quoted in the Ontario Farmer, "... the
most important competitor in the dairy
industry is the dairy industry itself."
He added that each producer "must be-
come involved in the debate to posi-
tively change our industry." Stop
fighting with our customers, consum-
ers, and processors, he urged, and soon.
He urged removal of interprovin-
cial trade barriers, another thing I have
proposed in the past. I was told by a
different letter -writing dairy producer
that this couldn't be done and still
maintain s.m. But Sherwood believes
Adrian Vos, from Huron County, has
contributed to The Rural Voice since
its inception in 1975.
that these barriers are hampering the
industry.
Instead of hiding behind import
barriers from abroad we should set up a
pool of producers how are willing to
challenge importers and compete, he
said.
I ask, why not let producers sell
directly to processors such as the one in
eastem Ontario, under the auspices of
the board, with an administration and
promotion fee paid to the board? The
pork board now allows it after years of
acrimony.
Sherwood is quoted as saying: "I'm
convinced there are better ways to do
our marketing. The question is how
and what can we do in co-operation to
get the results that we want?"
Logic tells me that the GATT will
not protect article XI, let alone streng-
then it. Canada is a trading nation that
cannot exist without trade. The whole
world moves rapidly to global market-
ing because the GATT deals of the last
45 years have proven, without a doubt,
that the freeing up of trade brings
undreamed of prosperity to everyone.
Not everyone is old enough to ap-
preciate the difference, as I am. This
freer trade is possible and therefore un-
avoidable, because of faster and better
transportation methods and miniatur-
izing of manufactured products. We
have seen the Fleck Manufacturing
plants move to low wage Mexico even
before the U.S./Canada free trade deal.
If it was not Mexico it would have been
Lower Slobbovia or some such place.
Whatever the validity of s.m. as not
distorting world trade, no government
can afford to expose our manufactured
products to wide open trade wars
should it refuse to sign a GATT deal
for whatever reason. Only if our
people can convince the other 108
GATT nations that they won't be hurt
by leaving our s.m. trade barriers in
place will we maintain our s.m. sys-
tems. Let's hope they will be per-
suasive enough, but don't hold your
breath.0